Hello and welcome to this day in esoteric political history from Radiotopia. My name is Jody Avergan.

This day, January 1939, anti-new dealers in the U.S. House of Representatives have proposed a resolution to impeach the first woman cabinet secretary Francis Perkins for not

deporting a communist immigrant labor organizer from Australia named Harry Bridges. We've talked about

Perkins a fair amount on this show before, the labor secretary who helped so many of the New

Deal reforms come to light. We've also talked a fair amount on this show about how FDR and his

administration faced fierce resistance. We tend to think of the New Deal as something that

remade the country and moved it into the post-war boom, but lots of people fought FDR, tooth,

and nail and Perkins as well. So this incident with Perkins is a good example, plus our chance

to revisit her work and legacy in general. So let's talk Perkins is a good example, plus our chance to revisit her work

and legacy in general. So let's talk about this little red scare involving Francis Perkins.

Here, as always, Nicole Hammer of Vanderbilt and Kelly Carter Jackson of Wellesley. Hello there.

Hello, Jody. Hey there. And our guest for this episode is Dr. Rebecca Brenner-Gram,

a post-doctoral research associate at Brown University.

She's also the author of a brand new book.

And I mean like two days old, new book, Dear Miss Perkins, a story of Francis Perkins's effort to aid refugees from Nazi Germany.

Rebecca, congratulations.

Welcome to the show.

Thank you so much for having me. I'm thrilled to be here.

And we'll certainly get into the story of Perkins and aid to Nazi refugees. You know, one of the

things about Perkins is like, anytime you look at her story, it's just like, how could she have

been involved in so many consequences or moments and storylines? It's incredible. So we will get into some of those.

But take us to January 1939. Members of Congress are standing up and saying impeach the Labor Secretary, impeach Francis Perkins.

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