Texas, Cotton, and the New Deal
Cotton supplied the Native Americans with clothing fibers before the Spanish ever entered Texas. It drew Southern settlers fleeing U.S. antislavery trends during the Mexican Republic in the 1820s. By the early 1930s, cotton was produced in 223 of the 254 counties in Texas and was a central element in the Texas economy. The Great Depression created a major disruption that threatened to destabilize the entire Lone Star State.\ In this book, Keith J. Volanto relates the story of the New Deal’s...
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"In this book, Keith J. Volanto relates the story of the New Deal's efforts to aid Texas cotton farmers, specifically with the production-control policies introduced by the Agricultural Adjustment Administration (AAA). He explores the reasons the AAA cotton programs in Texas were instituted, the implementation problems the AAA encountered and how they were resolved, and the results of the programs. He draws conclusions concerning how well Texans benefited from the AAA cotton programs and about those who were actually harmed by them. In addition, he also examines the role of Texas politicians and bureaucrats in formulating the policies in Washington and the importance of Texas to New Deal cotton policy broadly." Volanto's study of the AAA cotton programs in Texas is an important case study not only of agriculture policy but also of the New Deal itself. The AAA provides an example of how the New Deal attempted to solve a national problem in a largely experimental fashion. American Historical Review Overall, this is a strong offering that looks through a narrow lens at a period of dramatic transformation in Texas agriculture.
Ch. 1Before the New Deal3Ch. 2Creation of the Agricultural Adjustment Administration and the 1933 program27Ch. 3The rise of compulsory control, 1934-3558Ch. 4Treading water with the Soil Conservation and Domestic Allotment Act, 1936-3789Ch. 5Emergence of the ever-normal granary, 1937-39110Ch. 6Tenant and sharecropper displacement in Texas125Ch. 7Conclusion142
\ Richard Lowitt"Readers interested in American agriculture, The New Deal, The South, the cotton industry and of course, Texas will find it of inestimable value. . . it is so well written."—Richard Lowitt, University of Oklahoma\ \ \ \ \ American Historical ReviewOverall, this is a strong offering that looks through a narrow lens at a period of dramatic transformation in Texas agriculture.\ \ \
