People Must Live by WorkIn People Must Live by Work, Steven Attewell presents the history of an ideadirect job creationthat transformed the role of government in ameliorating unemployment by hiring the unemployed en masse to prevent widespread destitution in economic crises. For ten years, between 1933 and 1943, direct job creation was put into practice, employing more than eight million Americans and making the federal government the largest single employer in the country.