Beyond the Bonus March and GI Bill
Subtitle: how veteran politics shaped the New Deal era
By: Stephen R. Ortiz.
Publisher: New York University Press
Published: 2009
Place of publication: New York
Language: eng
Number of pages: 249
ISBN-13: 9780814762134
Subjects: Bonus Expeditionary Forces; Veterans -- Political activity -- United States -- History -- 20th century; World War, 1914-1918 -- Veterans -- United States; Veterans -- Government pollicy -- United States -- History -- 20th century; Veterans -- United States -- Economic conditions -- 20th century; Veterans -- Education -- United States -- History -- 20th century; Protest movements -- Washington (D.C.) -- History -- 20th century; New Deal, 1933-1939; United States -- Politics and government -- 1918-1933; United States -- Politics and government -- 1933-1945
Other titles: Beyond the Bonus March and G.I. Bill
Description: This volume chronicles how veteran politics influenced U.S. federal policy during the 1930s and 1940s, illuminating how veterans and veteran organizations pushed the federal government to place their interests front and center on the national agenda. The author presents a history of World War I veterans and their efforts to organize into a political interest group. He examines the benefits that the veterans secured, including state pensions and bonuses and the affect they had on the New Deal era.He demonstrates that veterans participated in an active political life, following the publicized Bonus March as they staged smaller marches, lobbied politicians, and threatened to undermine President Franklin Delano Roosevelt's (FDR) prospects for reelection in 1936. The author demonstrates how federal policy -- and, by extension, American political culture -- underwent a fundamental shift to embrace the needs of veterans by furnishing them with health care benefits, pensions, job training programs, education, and housing.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references and index.
Table of contents: title: Veterans' policy and veteran organizations, 1917-1929; title: Rethinking the Bonus March; title: The "New Deal" for veterans; title: The Bonus re-emerges; title: "The Pro-Bonus Party"; title: Veteran politics and the New Deal's political triumph of 1936.