The Great Depression coincided with a wave of natural disasters, including the Dust Bowl and devastating floods of the Ohio and Mississippi rivers. Recovering from these calamities--and preventing their reoccurrence--was a major goal of the New Deal.

In Nature's New Deal, Neil M. Maher examines the history of one of Franklin D. Roosevelt's boldest and most successful experiments, the Civilian Conservation Corps, describing it as a turning point both in national politics and in the emergence of modern environmentalism. Indeed, Roosevelt addressed both the economic and environmental crises by putting Americans to work at conserving natural resources, through the Soil Conservation Service, the Tennessee Valley Authority, and the Civilian Conservation Corps (or CCC). The CCC created public landscapes--natural terrain altered by federal work projects--that helped environmentalism blossom after World War II, Maher notes. Millions of Americans devoted themselves to a new vision of conservation, one that went beyond the old model of simply maximizing the efficient use of natural resources, to include the promotion of human health through outdoor recreation, wilderness preservation, and ecological balance. And yet, as Maher explores the rise and development of the CCC, he also shows how the critique of its campgrounds, picnic areas, hiking trails, and motor roads frames the debate over environmentalism to this day.

From the colorful life at CCC camps, to political discussions in the White House and the philosophical debates dating back to John Muir and Frederick Law Olmsted, Nature's New Deal captures a key moment in the emergence of modern environmentalism.

"A meticulously researched history of Franklin D. Roosevelt's most popular New Deal program, the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) and its political implications and impact on conservation-environmental movements then and now.... Highly recommended."--P.D. Travis, CHOICE

"Neil Maher has done us a great service by recalling the forgotten history of the New Deal's conservation programs. His research is impressive, and he writes with clarity and grace. His study offers us valuable insights for understanding the environment controversies of our time."--Howard Zinn, author of A People's History of the United States

"Neil Maher's brilliant book shows that the Civilian Conservation Corps did much more than plant trees, clear trails, and build parks--in critical ways, the CCC broadened the conservation cause. Nature's New Deal is required reading for anyone interested in the roots of the modern environmental movement."--Adam Rome, author of The Bulldozer in the Countryside: Suburban Sprawl and the Rise of American Environmentalism

"Nature's New Deal is not only a compelling case study of the centrality of conservation to New Deal state-building; it is also a stunning explication of the Civilian Conservation Corps' profound and lasting legacy for modern environmental politics."--Paul S. Sutter, University of Georgia

"Nature's New Deal is not only an engaging and well-written history of the most popular program of the New Deal, the Civilian Conservation Corps, but a compelling assessment of its long-term impact on the land and on environmental politics. All students of the Depression era or environmental politics will want to read it. Those who seek a stronger environmental policy simply must."--Louis S. Warren, author of Buffalo Bill's America: William Cody and the Wild West Show

Neil M. Maher is Associate Professor of History, Federated History Department, New Jersey Institute of Technology--Rutgers University, Newark.