The Farm Security Administration And Rural Rehabilitation In The South

"This manuscript examines the Farm Security Administration's political and administrative history and assesses the ideology of the institution against the overall goals of the New Deal. Roberts argues that the FSA's operating procedure in the rural south was woefully inadequate, stemming from a misunderstanding of rural poverty from leading New Dealers, a bogged-down bureaucracy that offered contradictory advice to southern farmers, and ineffective on-the-ground efforts by FSA agents"--

While previous studies of the photographic images of the U.S. southern poor produced by the Farm Security Administration (FSA) have been discussed in the context of individual photographers or the general culture of the Great Depression and the New Deal, Kidd (American history, U. of Reading, UK) situates his examination of the photographs in the institutional context of the FSA and the role played in photographic production by FSA administrator Roy Stryker. The photographs emerged, according to Kidd, from the dialogue between Stryker and his field photographers about the proper way to document disadvantaged and oppressed groups within the framework of a progressive, federal government. The resulting productions reveal "an uneasy dimension to the relationship between individual and the liberal state and its cadres" that is partly an outcome of class cleavages between photographer and subject. Annotation : 2004 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com).

This book is more than a case study of the Farm Security Administration. It not only deals with the history of farm politics but also provides a fresh perspective and gives depth of understanding to issues such as the role of farm organizations, the behavior of many prominent people of the time, and problems of antipoverty programs generally. A UNC Press Enduring Edition -- UNC Press Enduring Editions use the latest in digital technology to make available again books from our distinguished backlist that were previously out of print. These editions are published unaltered from the original, and are presented in affordable paperback formats, bringing readers both historical and cultural value.