Book review of Tara Mitchel Mielnik, New Deal, New Landscape: The Civilian Conservation Corps & South Carolina\u27s State Parks. (2011). The University of South Carolina Press. $34.95 (paperback)

Rosenthal, Marguerite G.

English

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The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare Volume 39 Issue 1 March - Special Issue on Declining Significance of Race, Revisited Article 14 2012 Review of New Deal, New Landscape: The Civilian Conservation Corps & South Carolina's State Parks. Tara Mitchel Mielnik. Reviewed by Marguerite G. Rosenthal. Marguerite G. Rosenthal Salem State University Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarworks.wmich.edu/jssw  Part of the Social Work Commons Recommended Citation Rosenthal, Marguerite G. (2012) "Review of New Deal, New Landscape: The Civilian Conservation Corps & South Carolina's State Parks. Tara Mitchel Mielnik. Reviewed by Marguerite G. Rosenthal.," The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare: Vol. 39 : Iss. 1 , Article 14. Available at: https://scholarworks.wmich.edu/jssw/vol39/iss1/14 This Book Review is brought to you for free and open access by the Social Work at ScholarWorks at WMU. For more information, please contact maira.bundza@wmich.edu. Book ReviewsThinking through how environmentalists can effectivelyintegrate anti-capitalism into their day-to-day theory and prac-tice is an urgent necessity. While this book does not addressthat problem, it provides valuable tools for others to begin todo so.Paul Saba, Center for Biological DiversityTara Mitchel Mielnik, New Deal, New Landscape: The CivilianConservation Corps & South Carolina's State Parks. (2011). TheUniversity of South Carolina Press. $34.95 (paperback).At present, when our national government seems incapableof responding to the current economic crisis and when respon-sive, forward-thinking leadership is either absent or thwarted,it is instructive and inspiring to read accounts of New Deal pro-grams that worked. This carefully researched book provides adetailed account of the workings of the Civilian ConservationCorps (CCC) in one state.Mielnik investigates nearly every aspect of the CCC's pur-poses, origins, organization, difficulties and accomplishments.Before the Depression, South Carolina had state forest land butno state parks. Between 1933 and 1942, the CCC built 16, all ofwhich stand today. The Corps also established fire preventionand control stations and reclaimed land through reforestation.Famously, it provided work, education, healthcare and propernutrition to a quarter million young men and a few womenat a time when they were idle and hopeless. Meager as theirearnings were, they were the greater part of enrollees' familiesincome during the worst of the Depression.In the first chapter, the author provides compelling detailsabout the impact of the Depression on South Carolina, a rural,segregated state where agriculture-primarily share croppingfor African Americans-and textiles were the principal sourcesof economic activity. Both were clobbered by the Depression;many lost their jobs and those who kept them had their wagesseverely cut. With this as background, Meilnik discusses thevarious New Deal programs and their interfaces. She then pro-vides detailed information about the administrative structureof the CCC that was positioned under the War Department but198 Journal of Sociology & Social Welfarewhere recruitment was the responsibility of the Department ofLabor.South Carolina had the highest percentage-40%-ofAfrican Americans of any state in the 1930s. The author dis-cusses the federal government's upholding racial segregationin the CCC camps; because of their greater presence in theSouth, there were higher percentages of African Americansin the CCC than elsewhere, but overall, only 9% of Corpsmembers were Black, and they were confined in camps sepa-rate from whites. Similarly, when the parks opened, AfricanAmericans were either excluded (in the case of smaller parks)or confined to designated, less attractive and less appointedsections.First person accounts of their experiences are difficult tolocate and many written documents, such as camp newspa-pers, have disappeared, according to the author. She has madegood use of whatever primary sources she's been able to find,and they report hard work, good food, recreation and oppor-tunities to learn some skills and basic literacy.The book has a long middle section that provides detailsabout the various parks built by the CCC. This section hasmany photographs, some showing how the buildings initial-ly looked and how they look today. The final, brief chapter,"Learning from the Parks," provides a succinct assessment ofthe achievements and failings of the CCC as well as the impactof other New Deal programs in South Carolina. About theformer, she concludes (p. 138) that "The CCC met PresidentRoosevelt's dual goals of conservation of land and of men"despite having not confronted some of the State's underlyingsocio-economic problems.The CCC was conceived, developed and put into operationwith amazing speed. A good companion to this book is PublicBroadcasting Service's American Experience documentary, TheCCC. The book can also be paired with Robert Leighninger'sLong-Range Public Investment: The Forgotten Legacy of the NewDeal (2007). Both books demonstrate how much can be accom-plished in the immediate and in the long term.Marguerite G. Rosenthal, Prof. Emerita, School of Social Work,Salem State University

Review of \u3cem\u3eNew Deal, New Landscape: The Civilian Conservation Corps & South Carolina\u27s State Parks.\u3c/em\u3e Tara Mitchel Mielnik. Reviewed by Marguerite G. Rosenthal.

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Review of \u3cem\u3eNew Deal, New Landscape: The Civilian Conservation Corps & South Carolina\u27s State Parks.\u3c/em\u3e Tara Mitchel Mielnik. Reviewed by Marguerite G. Rosenthal.

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