The CCC was an important tool, one of many, used by the government to rescue America from the Great Depression. My brother, twenty-five years older than I, served in the CCC. What he gained from it was far different than the experience of young city men who saw their first wild animals when building rock railings along Glacier National Park roads. Both benefitted. My brother-in-law led a CCC crew on a Montana wildfire and can tell what they achieved and how they came close to being overrun by a grass fire. In addition to showing the contributions to conservation, an understanding of the CCC must include those things as well.
The CCC was up and running in a very short time and people with considerable vision enabled that to happen. Stan Cohen's book alludes to failures. Certainly, there were some shortcomings. Any comprehensive history must look at why those happened and what leaders did to compensate. The CCC concept has continued, and is continuing, in a number of state and federal programs. A history of the Great Depression program lays the foundation on which today's programs are built. I don't find that in this book.
This book is like a small-town pioneer museum. You know; the museums where you give up about halfway through the exhibits when you have seen five old sewing machines, three cream separators, and pile after pile of rusty old tools. You have read a few yellowed newspaper clippings taped to the wall and at the same time wished that someone had taken time to write better captions for the exhibits. You have glanced over many old posed photos wondering if there was anyone that you knew.
A reader begins "The Tree Army" with the same kind of anticipation. Progress slows as photo captions tell where and when but lack any guidance as to the photos' importance. When one reaches the back cover after several cycles of saturation, abandonment, and return; a person leaves with the feeling that it could have been interesting but where does one find the real story.
The back cover claims that: "This book traces the history of the CCC, `Roosevelt's Tree Army,' through text and photos." There are certainly lots of photos, nearly all black and white, some blurry, and most reproduced too small to show many details. The text is reasonably good as far as it goes, but it is skimpy and like the captions includes nearly endless lists of locations.
A brief glance at the book will find that the amount of space devoted to photos is about ten times that given to text. Typically, there are three or four photos per page. Many of the photos show buildings built by or for the CCC. There are lots of posed pictures of men in various uniforms. Looking at the captions leads one to wonder if the objective was simply to name as many locations and as many states as possible. For example, we find five people standing in front of a pole and canvas structure with a caption that reads only "Wise River Camp in Montana, 1933."
To understand how the CCC came about and the impact it had on individuals, their families, and the nation requires in-depth analysis. I am sure there must be more comprehensive sources on the history of the CCC. The internet, Amazon.com, and the local library are probably good places to start. "The Tree Army" contains a minimal bibliography but the most recent publication identified is 1986; disappointing since the book was supposedly revised before being reprinted in March, 2006.
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