Dollars and Dreams: The National Youth Administration in Texas: 6 (Recent American History) - Tapa dura

-Weisenberger does an admirable job of describing the NYA after Johnson, which built upon the youth training and placement programs instituted in Texas in the early days of the agency, and Kellam's success in adapting his programs to wartime conditions.- (Christie L. Bourgeois, Southwestern Historical Quarterly)
-The book fills a niche, since there is neither a comprehensive history of the NYA nor of any other of its state branches. The author tells and documents the story well, offering insights into the employment problems of youth.- (George N. Green, Locus)
-The addition of a history of the NYA to the body of literature about the New Deal is indeed a contribution.- (Sylvia Oates Hunt, History of Education Quarterly)
-'Dollars and Dreams'...provides welcome historical insights into the implementation of unemployment policy.- (Julie Leininger Pycior, Journal of Southern History)
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Franklin D. Roosevelt created the National Youth Administration in 1935 to solve the problems faced by millions of youths in Depression-era America. This work examines the federal program to aid youths by focusing on a case study of one of the most successful state offices - the NYA in Texas - and is the first comprehensive history of any state NYA office. Headed in its initial years by Lyndon Baines Johnson, the Texas NYA developed and operated an organization that not only provided relief but also promoted social justice. This study also contends that LBJ and his successor, Jesse Kellam, were able to accomplish the goal of promoting reform because they diligently followed the guidelines of the national office, not because they were committed reformers.