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How Things Worked
The New Deal's Forest Army: How the Civilian Conservation Corps Worked
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.
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.
192 pages, Paperback
Published February 1, 2018
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November 12, 2024
The New Deal’s Forest Army
Author: Benjamin F. Alexander
The subtitle of this work is “How the Civilian Conservation Corps Worked.” It is part of a Johns Hopkins University Press series, “How Things Work.” Other pieces explain Ellis Island, the economics of the 1920s, and the rise of America’s public education system. As such, the work is a slim volume, but well written and extremely informative.
When Franklin Delano Roosevelt ran for the White House the first time in 1932, he promised the country immediate relief, his New Deal, from the worst economic downturn in US history, the Great Depression. Once in the Oval Office, FDR enacted emergency legislation to save the economy, thus saving the nation. The New Deal passed legislation for many programs, but the Civilian Conservation Corps remains one of the most successful and visible.
One of his first acts as president was to enact an emergency program that sought to immediately employ 250,000 youth. Although the program ran only from 1933 to 1942, Alexander’s work notes its lasting mark on America to this day.
Controversial at first, the CCC eventually became incredibly popular with the communities near these camps, as well as the states being served. And all 48 states, plus the then-territories of Hawaii and Alaska were served. Even special programs were enacted to serve native lands with native men working their own lands. Also, the CCC was eventually opened to African American youths. This being the 1930s, a time when America was deeply divided by race, the black young men worked out of segregated camps kept separate from the white-only CCC camps. Eventually, young women were allowed to enroll in the CCC, with their camps getting the nickname She-She-She camps.
The workers, nicknamed peavies, received many benefits. For many, it was three square meals a day. For all, it was the modest monthly pay of $30, which by Depression-era standards was a goodly sum. All peavies had to have family members who needed assistance. This $30 was divided so that $25 went directly to their families back home and $5 remained with the peavies as pocket money. Monthly $25 infusions in communities stricken with the lingering effects of the Depression eased the suffering of large families that now had one or two dependent sons away and sending money back home, and it helped local businesses with customers carrying ready cash.
The camps also employed a modest-sized staff, so that many other unemployed victims of the Depression found CCC work. Cooks and personnel helped run the camps, and teachers at each camp provided an educational component.
The CCC was a work program—and work their peavies did. They replanted millions of trees in national forest. They improved national and state parks by blazing trails, building fire lookout towers, laying out campgrounds and recreational facilities like swimming lakes with bathhouses and guest lodges. In the states that had suffered from the Dust Bowl, the CCC peavies helped with land and water reclamation. Other New Deal programs, like the Works Progress Administration (the WPA) built roads and bridges. The CCC work remained mostly invisible in rural forests and prairies. But the peavies laid the groundwork for hundreds of state and national parks.
With the coming of the War, these young men were needed for other duties, and the CCC stopped its operations in 1942.
Alexander’s work delves into this fascinating piece of American history. It is well worth the time to read. In its ten-year span, the CCC left an indelible mark everywhere it served and especially in the hearts of its peavies.
Author: Benjamin F. Alexander
The subtitle of this work is “How the Civilian Conservation Corps Worked.” It is part of a Johns Hopkins University Press series, “How Things Work.” Other pieces explain Ellis Island, the economics of the 1920s, and the rise of America’s public education system. As such, the work is a slim volume, but well written and extremely informative.
When Franklin Delano Roosevelt ran for the White House the first time in 1932, he promised the country immediate relief, his New Deal, from the worst economic downturn in US history, the Great Depression. Once in the Oval Office, FDR enacted emergency legislation to save the economy, thus saving the nation. The New Deal passed legislation for many programs, but the Civilian Conservation Corps remains one of the most successful and visible.
One of his first acts as president was to enact an emergency program that sought to immediately employ 250,000 youth. Although the program ran only from 1933 to 1942, Alexander’s work notes its lasting mark on America to this day.
Controversial at first, the CCC eventually became incredibly popular with the communities near these camps, as well as the states being served. And all 48 states, plus the then-territories of Hawaii and Alaska were served. Even special programs were enacted to serve native lands with native men working their own lands. Also, the CCC was eventually opened to African American youths. This being the 1930s, a time when America was deeply divided by race, the black young men worked out of segregated camps kept separate from the white-only CCC camps. Eventually, young women were allowed to enroll in the CCC, with their camps getting the nickname She-She-She camps.
The workers, nicknamed peavies, received many benefits. For many, it was three square meals a day. For all, it was the modest monthly pay of $30, which by Depression-era standards was a goodly sum. All peavies had to have family members who needed assistance. This $30 was divided so that $25 went directly to their families back home and $5 remained with the peavies as pocket money. Monthly $25 infusions in communities stricken with the lingering effects of the Depression eased the suffering of large families that now had one or two dependent sons away and sending money back home, and it helped local businesses with customers carrying ready cash.
The camps also employed a modest-sized staff, so that many other unemployed victims of the Depression found CCC work. Cooks and personnel helped run the camps, and teachers at each camp provided an educational component.
The CCC was a work program—and work their peavies did. They replanted millions of trees in national forest. They improved national and state parks by blazing trails, building fire lookout towers, laying out campgrounds and recreational facilities like swimming lakes with bathhouses and guest lodges. In the states that had suffered from the Dust Bowl, the CCC peavies helped with land and water reclamation. Other New Deal programs, like the Works Progress Administration (the WPA) built roads and bridges. The CCC work remained mostly invisible in rural forests and prairies. But the peavies laid the groundwork for hundreds of state and national parks.
With the coming of the War, these young men were needed for other duties, and the CCC stopped its operations in 1942.
Alexander’s work delves into this fascinating piece of American history. It is well worth the time to read. In its ten-year span, the CCC left an indelible mark everywhere it served and especially in the hearts of its peavies.
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