Synopses & Reviews
This valuable survey of the impact of New Deal agencies and programs focuses on the Great Plains, the Rocky Mountains and Great Basin, the Pacific Northwest, and California during the period from 1932 to 1940.
Review
"Although historians have dealt with the Dust Bowl and with Northwestern water projects of the thirties, there has never been a satisfactory comprehensive treatment of New Deal programs in the Western states. Lowitt's volume, the first in a series on the West in the 20th century, edited by Martin Ridge, fills the bill reasonably well. He has done impressive research on such topics as the drought, irrigation, Indian policy, electric power, the role of the West in national politics, and the conflicts between the Departments of Agriculture and Interior. Lowitt's writing leaves much to be desired, and his conclusions are not always strikingly insightful, but his book is likely to remain the standard survey of the New Deal in the West for quite some time." Reviewed by Daniel Weiss, Virginia Quarterly Review (Copyright 2006 Virginia Quarterly Review)
Description
Includes bibliographical references (p. 269-276) and index.
About the Author
Richard Lowitt,, Professor of History at the University of Oklahoma, is well known for his books on twentieth-century American history.