This Land, This Nation: Conservation, Rural America, And The New Deal

摘要

In This Land, This Nation, Sarah Phillips undertakes a daunting task: trying to make sense of New Deal conservation policy as a coherent whole. Generally, historians have dealt with these policy initiatives piecemeal, failing to consider the whole package as a set of diverse programs with complementary goals. Instead, Phillips perceives this set of programs from the TVA to Dust Bowl rehabilitation as a part of a larger project to improve poor lands, while improving the lives of poor people. The New Conservation, as she calls it, had a distinctly Country Life tone, intending to improve the land, in order to improve the lives of individuals and families, and maintain a sustainable agricultural countryside.