In the early 1930s, cotton was produced in 223 of the 254 counties 
in Texas and was a central element in the state's economy. The 
Great Depression created a major disruption that threatened to 
destabilize the entire Lone Star State.

    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, Volanto 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 account of the AAA cotton programs in Texas is a study 
not only of agriculture policy but also of the New Deal itself. The 
experience of the AAA—the political, economic, and legal constraints 
it faced—provides new insight into the nature of New Deal commodity 
programs.

    Very little has previously been written on farm subsidy programs 
and their impact on Texas during the 1930s and the AAA's cotton 
programs that were implemented at the state level. Texas, Cotton, 
and the New Deal fills this void.

_________________________________________________________

KEITH J. VOLANTO holds a Ph.D. in history from Texas A&M 
University. He is currently an instructor at Collin County Community 
College in Plano, Texas.


Number Seven: Sam Rayburn Series on Rural Life, sponsored by 
Texas A&M University–Commerce


What people are saying about this book

"Overall, this is a strong offering that looks through a narrow lens 
at a period of dramatic transformation in Texas agriculture."
—American Historical Review

". . . 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

"A comprehensive coverage of the revolutionary New Deal cotton 
program in the Lone Star state. Drawing upon a variety of sources, 
Volanto puts the Texas story into national context while not 
overlooking the disagreement among cotton interests in the state 
over the merits of the program. A valuable contribution to a long 
neglected aspect of modern Texas history."—Clayton Brown, 
Texas Christian University, and author, Electricity for Rural 
America: The Fight for the REA

"At long last the New Deal's most important program for the rural 
South has its historian! Keith Volanto has written a compelling 
study of the AAA's cotton program in the state which produced 
one third of the nation's crop. No other historian deals so 
effectively with the AAA's most urgent function: economic relief 
and recovery for hard-pressed farmers. No other historian conveys 
so powerfully the experimentation, haste and confusion which 
tried the patience, but ultimately won the support, of the state's 
cotton farmers."—A. J. Badger