Steven Fenberg tells stories that help organizations fulfill their missions.
PUBLICATIONS, PRESENTATIONS, EXHIBITIONS, DOCUMENTARIES, ORAL HISTORIES, ARCHIVES
Showcase
REMARKABLE EXPERIENCES
DOCUMENTARY FILM
Friends of Jones Hall
ARTS AND CULTURE
WATCH in nine minutes how the 1966 opening of the Jesse H. Jones Hall for the Performing Arts propelled the Houston Ballet, the Houston Grand Opera, the Houston Symphony and Performing Arts Houston to international acclaim and made Houston a vibrant center for the performing arts.
Congress Should Resurrect The Depression-Era RFC
PUBLICATION
Houston Chronicle
GOOD GOVERMENT
READ how the Reconstruction Finance Corporation (RFC) saved and expanded the U.S. economy during the Great Depression, built the arsenal of democracy to fight and win World War II and how its successful strategies can be adapted to address today’s daunting challenges.
LEGACY ROOM
EXHIBITION
Houston Endowment
HISTORY
BROTHER, CAN YOU SPARE A BILLION? The Story of Jesse H. Jones
DOCUMENTARY FILM
Public Broacasting Service
GOOD GOVERNMENT
WATCH the Emmy Award-winning documentary narrated by Walter Cronkite and broadcast nationally on PBS. Steven Fenberg, as executive producer and co-writer, shows how Jesse Jones and the Reconstruction Finance Corporation saved and expanded the economy during the Great Depression, built the arsenal of democracy in time to win World War II and how those successful strategies can be adapted to address today’s daunting challenges.
FILMING THE FIGHT: An interview with
L. Bennett Fenberg
ORAL HISTORY
Houston History Magazine
HISTORY
READ how World War II photographer L. Bennett Fenberg filmed the iconic explosion of the swastika above Germany’s Nuremberg Stadium. The film has been used in countless newsreels and movies, including Judgment at Nuremberg directed by Stanley Kramer and starring Spencer Tracy, Marlene Dietrich, Burt Lancaster, Montgomery Clift and others. Fenberg recounts the challenges he and his fellow Signal Corps photographers encountered on European battlefields. Fenberg also describes how his family settled in Houston after the war.
WATCH the original film by L. Bennett Fenberg of the swastika explosion.
THE JOHN A. AND AUDREY JONES BECK COLLECTION
PRESENTATION
Museum of Fine Arts, Houston
ARTS AND CULTURE
WATCH Steven Fenberg at the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam describe how Audrey and John Beck created a sweeping overview of the Impressionist and Post-Impressionist periods of art through the paintings they collected by renowned and remarkable painters.
Unprecedented Power:
Jesse Jones, Capitalism and the Common Good
By Steven Fenberg
"A must-read for those wanting to learn how a great nation—and a great man—can respond to difficult challenges."
James A. Baker III
61st U.S. Secretary of State
''Steven Fenberg has given us a wonderful biography of a man who played a critical role in the most tumultuous years of the American Century, bringing Jones back to vivid life.''
Jon Meacham
Pulitzer Prize-winning author and historian​
''Don’t ask me what I have done on matters of business … The only person I am going to see within the next 36 hours is Jesse Jones.''
President Franklin Roosevelt, July 16, 1933
''In all the U.S. today there is only one man whose power is greater: Franklin Roosevelt.''
TIME magazine,  January 13, 1941
Reviews
"If ever a man personified the word titan, it was Jesse H. Jones. His influence was felt around the nation and the world when he was a chief architect of the plans that restored the US economy during the Great Depression and militarized industry in time to win World War II. Steven Fenberg's biography, Unprecedented Power: Jesse Jones, Capitalism and the Common Good, is a compelling story of a Houstonian who wielded power in ways that helped build his city and his country into powerhouses. It is a must-read for those wanting to learn how a great nation -and a great man-can respond to difficult challenges."
"Unprecedented Power is the story of a Tennessee kid turned Texas businessman, who, with some help, shapes the largest city in the South, helps the United States survive the Great Depression, and, while he's at it, mobilizes the nation to win World War II... Inlaid in Jesse Jones's biography is the suggestion that government can-if it chooses-ignite the economy without falling headlong into socialism... An economic turnaround story like Fenberg's reads almost like a fairytale.
Only it isn't."
Click Here for the full review.
"In this meticulously researched, briskly written biography, Steven Fenberg... not only recovers the forgotten history of this key player but also intervenes forcefully in contemporary historical and political debates about the New Deal and the nature of American politics... Recovering the history of a largely forgotten New Deal figure, Fenberg's biography reminds readers just how much New Dealers accomplished and how they accomplished it."
"Given his unprecedented power-which provides the apt title of Steven Fenberg's meaty new biography-it is no wonder than in 1941 TIME magazine dubbed Jones the second most powerful man in Washington (after President Franklin D. Roosevelt). Roosevelt himself teasingly called him 'Jesus H. Jones.'...Fenberg's comprehensive biography should revive interest in this remarkable capitalist and public servant."
Click Here for the full review.
"Prior to the publication of Unprecedented Power, journalists and acquaintances of the powerful Texan had written the only biographies of Jones. For those who want to know how Jones viewed the world in which he operated, this is the book for them."
Click Here for the full review.
"Roosevelt chose Jones to head the RFC, which rapidly morphed into a leading institution of the New Deal, with chief responsibility for getting the economy back on track. By 1934, Jones faced problems similar to issues today... [Unprecedented Power is] a somewhat forgotten page of U.S. history that holds enormous relevance today."
Click Here for the full review.
