I'm curious about how people viewed the WPA at the time. In my brief search on the topic, most references seem to come from people who were viewing the WPA from the outside.
I'm curious about how WPA workers saw themselves, and the work that they did. Was it part of a noble effort, or just something they did while the economy was tanking? Did workers see themselves as part of a group of good people who'd fallen on bad times, or did they tend to think of the other workers in harsher terms than they used for themselves?
It is hard to generalize across all the WPA programs.
The Federal Project Number One Programs (basically, the programs that employed artists and writers) were supported by the participants and many felt quite strongly about the importance of their work. A decent book that includes the participants's perspectives is Susan Quinn's Furious Improvisation, which tells the story of the Federal Theatre Project.