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Cover image of The New Deal's Forest Army
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The New Deal's Forest Army

How the Civilian Conservation Corps Worked

Benjamin F. Alexander

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How the Civilian Conservation Corps constructed, rejuvenated, and protected American forests and parks at the height of the Great Depression.

Propelled by the unprecedented poverty of the Great Depression, President Franklin D. Roosevelt established an array of massive public works programs designed to provide direct relief to America’s poor and unemployed. The New Deal’s most tangible legacy may be the Civilian Conservation Corps’s network of parks, national forests, scenic roadways, and picnic shelters that still mark the country’s landscape. CCC enrollees, most of them unmarried young men...

How the Civilian Conservation Corps constructed, rejuvenated, and protected American forests and parks at the height of the Great Depression.

Propelled by the unprecedented poverty of the Great Depression, President Franklin D. Roosevelt established an array of massive public works programs designed to provide direct relief to America’s poor and unemployed. The New Deal’s most tangible legacy may be the Civilian Conservation Corps’s network of parks, national forests, scenic roadways, and picnic shelters that still mark the country’s landscape. CCC enrollees, most of them unmarried young men, lived in camps run by the Army and worked hard for wages (most of which they had to send home to their families) to preserve America’s natural treasures.

In The New Deal’s Forest Army, Benjamin F. Alexander chronicles how the corps came about, the process applicants went through to get in, and what jobs they actually did. He also explains how the camps and the work sites were run, how enrollees spent their leisure time, and how World War II brought the CCC to its end. Connecting the story of the CCC with the Roosevelt administration’s larger initiatives, Alexander describes how FDR’s policies constituted a mixed blessing for African Americans who, even while singled out for harsh treatment, benefited enough from the New Deal to become an increasingly strong part of the electorate behind the Democratic Party.

The CCC was the only large-scale employment program whose existence FDR foreshadowed in speeches during the 1932 campaign—and the dearest to his heart throughout the decade that it lasted. Alexander reveals how the work itself left a lasting imprint on the country’s terrain as the enrollees planted trees, fought forest fires, landscaped public parks, restored historic battlegrounds, and constructed dams and terraces to prevent floods. A uniquely detailed exploration of life in the CCC, The New Deal’s Forest Army compellingly demonstrates how one New Deal program changed America and gave birth to both contemporary forestry and the modern environmental movement.

Reviews

Reviews

Alexander's short work is useful in that it offers an introduction to the program overall and insight into its participants' experiences, with a clear narratuve distilled from an impressive array of sources.

Alexander has undertaken an impressive amount of primary research for this project... As a result, he has un-earthed some extremely significant, and understudied, information on the Corps. involving the history of several female CCC camps as well as the experiences of African-American, Native-American, and Mexican-American enrollees. Although I, myself, have written a book about the CCC, The New Deal's Forest Army taught me new, interesting, and important facts about the program.

An informative history of America's "tree army"... The author's organizational method is outstanding for general readers with little or no knowledge of the CCC as well as appealing to readers who have read extensively about the Roosevelt presidency... This volume will be of interest to all readers. The next time you visit a state park with a rustic lodge, take a long look at the bronze plaque noting that it was built by the CCC and be sure to say "Thank you."

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About

Book Details

Publication Date
Status
Available
Trim Size
6
x
9
Pages
192
ISBN
9781421424569
Illustration Description
16 b&w illus., 1 line drawing
Table of Contents

Acknowledgments
Introduction
1. How the CCC Came About
2. How Boys and Men Joined the CCC
3. How the Enrollees Labored and Learned
4. How the Enrollees Spent Their Leisure Time
5. How the Coming of War

Acknowledgments
Introduction
1. How the CCC Came About
2. How Boys and Men Joined the CCC
3. How the Enrollees Labored and Learned
4. How the Enrollees Spent Their Leisure Time
5. How the Coming of War Spelled the End of the CCC
Notes
Suggested Further Reading
Index

Author Bio
Featured Contributor

Benjamin F. Alexander

Benjamin F. Alexander teaches American history at the New York City College of Technology. He is the author of Coxey’s Army: Popular Protest in the Gilded Age.