The Bonus Army: An American Epic
Author: Paul Dickson
In the summer of 1932, at the height of the Depression, some forty-five thousand veterans of World War I descended on Washington, D.C., from all over the country to demand the bonus promised them eight years earlier for their wartime service. They lived in shantytowns, white and black together, and for two months they protested and rallied for their cause—an action that would have a profound effect on American history.
President Herbert Hoover, Army Chief of Staff Douglas MacArthur, and others feared the protesters would turn violent after the Senate defeated the "bonus bill" that the House had passed. On July 28, 1932, tanks rolled through the streets as MacArthur's troops evicted the bonus marchers: Newspapers and newsreels showed graphic images of American soldiers driving out their former comrades in arms. Democratic candidate, Franklin Roosevelt, in a critical contest with Hoover, upon reading newspaper accounts of the eviction said to an adviser, "This will elect me," though bonus armies would plague him in each of his first three years.
Through seminal research, including interviews with the last surviving witnesses, Paul Dickson and Thomas B. Allen tell the full and dramatic story of the Bonus Army and of the many celebrated figures involved in it: Evalyn Walsh McLean, the owner of the hope diamond, sided with the marchers; Roy Wilkins saw the model for racial integration here; J. Edgar Hoover built his reputation against the Bonus Army radicals; a young Gore Vidal witnessed the crisis while John dos Passos, Sherwood Anderson, and Sinclair Lewis wrote about it. Dickson and Allen also recover the voices of ordinary men who dared tilt at powerfulinjustice, and who ultimately transformed the nation: The march inspired Congress to pass the G. I. Bill of Rights in 1944, one of the most important pieces of social legislation in our history, which in large part created America’s middle class. The Bonus Army is an epic story in the saga of our country.
Library Journal
Usually treated as a minor episode during the Great Depression, the Bonus Army (if remembered at all) has served to contrast the leadership styles of Herbert Hoover and Franklin Roosevelt. In 1932, World War I veterans struggling to survive the Depression organized to seek immediate payment of a bonus they were not to have received until 1945. Prolific authors Dickson (Sputnik: The Shock of the Century) and Allen (Spymaster) provide the drama behind this story and give it context. Though Hoover is usually depicted as sending in Gen. Douglas MacArthur to quash the veterans, while FDR sent Eleanor to hear their concerns, the story is revealed to be a great deal more complex. Both Hoover and FDR opposed the bonus on economic grounds. MacArthur, it turns out, was inclined to see Communist plots behind events and therefore ignored presidential instructions. FDR and the Congress ultimately transformed the Bonus Army protest into one of the most significant pieces of legislation in American history: the GI Bill of Rights. That the Bonus Army was an integrated movement, unlike the military at that time, helps make this a fascinating and readable book. Recommended for all libraries.-William D. Pederson, Louisiana State Univ., Shreveport Copyright 2005 Reed Business Information.
Kirkus Reviews
Here a demonstrator is clubbed and tear-gassed, but there real reforms are won: thus unfolds this memorable story of a now-forgotten episode in 20th-century history. The idea that WWI veterans should receive a bonus for their service took years to build and years more to fulfill. As popular historians Dickson (Sputnik, 2001) and Allen (Code Name Downfall, 1995, etc.) write, part of the delay was a matter of political clout; whereas Civil War vets formed a powerful and populous voting bloc and agitated for pensions, by the time Woodrow Wilson sent troops off to war in Europe, his notion was that soldiers would pay for their own life insurance and "there would be no demand for postwar compensation to those who were not injured during their service." Veterans in Oregon thought otherwise, and soon African-American vets from Virginia and hill-country farmers from Tennessee would join in their call for what was now being called a "bonus" for service. When neither Congress nor presidents would cough up, the vets began to organize nationally, and in 1932 thousands arrived in Washington to protest the Senate's defeat of a bill that would have funds for them. Sure that the leaders were Communists, Army Chief of Staff Douglas MacArthur sent in troops, routing the ethnically mixed protestors and killing some. On hearing the news, Franklin Roosevelt reportedly said to an aide, "This will elect me," and indeed it seemed one of the last straws for the Hoover administration. Ironically, the Bonus Army's leadership was far more inclined to the right than the left, so that even as MacArthur was blustering about the Reds, a group of financiers approached a retired Marine Corps general to lead an army ofveterans to stage a coup. The general replied, "If you get these 500,000 soldiers advocating anything smelling of fascism, I am going to get 500,000 more and lick the hell out of you, and we will have real war right at home."The lesson the New Deal government took home: avoid ticking off discontented veterans, whence the GI Bill. A lively, engaging work of history. Agent: Gail Ross/Gail Ross Literary Agency
New interesting book: Entertaining in the Northwest Style or Stir the Pot
Terrorism in the 21st Century
Author: Cindy C Combs
“The book’s major strengths are its content, which is excellent, its organization, which is logical, and the fact that it devotes considerable attention to counterterrorist strategies and operations.”
–Nicholas J. Steneck, The Ohio State University
Terrorism in the Twenty-First Century
Fifth Edition
Cindy C. Combs
Putting terrorism into historical perspective, Terrorism in the Twenty-First Century offers tools like the latest data and numerous case studies to facilitate the critical analysis of terrorist acts and break down what, who, why, and how. The text surveys national and international responses, evaluating their effectiveness and concluding with notes on emerging threats and trends to help readers understand the phenomenon of terrorism and its future.
New and Updated Case Studies
• U.S. Prisoners in the "War on Terror"
• Palestine Liberation Authority
• Iran’s Support Network
• Bin Laden’s Tapes
• Free Militia Training Manual
• Department of Homeland Security
• Animal Liberation Front and PETA
• The PATRIOT Act
• "Fake Bomb" Smuggling
• A.Q. Khan and Nuclear Proliferation
Please visit us at www.pearsonhighered.com
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