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Government Project tells the story of an attempt by the US government to remake the lives of some of its citizens by establishing a cooperative farm in Pinal County, Arizona, in 1937. These individuals were among the most desperately poor and disadvantaged in the nation.
Casa Grande Valley Farms was an elaborate venture that provided the Americans who volunteered to settle there with housing, work, and the opportunity to earn income. For five years, the farm succeeded. The revenues from the sale of its crops gave the Casa Grande settlers material comfort and wealth far beyond what they had ever possessed.
But in the farm’s seventh year of operation, the inhabitants shuttered it and walked away with hardly anything, to the shock and dismay of the government officials overseeing it.
Government Project explains what went wrong at Casa Grande. In telling this story, it illuminates larger truths about human nature and the limits of governance.
“Devotees of Aeschylus, Sophocles or Dreiser will understand this book. With the relentlessness of a Greek tragedy, the story of this Resettlement Administration project . . . moves forward from relief and destitution . . . through hope, then security, to the very brink of success, only to disintegrate.” —Howard J. McMurray, American Political Science Review
“Sociologists will find much meat in this book for purposes
of illustrating the processes of social interaction—conflict, co-operation, and
attempts and failures at accommodation.”
—Lowry Nelson, American
Journal of Sociology
“Before embarking on the next plan to change one part of society or another, today’s policy makers should revisit “Government Project” and ponder its cautionary tale.” - Leslie Lenkowsky, Wall Street Journal
“The story Banfield tells is more provocative and fuller of wisdom than a dozen recent articles in top social science journals.”
- Daniel Disalvo, City Journal
Edward C. Banfield (1916–99) was a professor at the University of Chicago, Harvard University, and the University of Pennsylvania. He authored more than a dozen books on urban politics, political cooperation, and American governance.
Kevin R. Kosar is a senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute, where he studies the US Congress, the administrative state, American politics, election reform, and the US Postal Service.
Contents
Foreword to the 2024 Edition
Foreword to the 1951 Edition
Introduction to the 1951 Edition
1. Beginnings
2. Organizing the Cooperative
3. Selecting the Settlers
4. The First Year
5. Progress Report
6. Factionalism
7. Dissatisfaction
8. Women and Children
9. Pinal County Opinion
10. The New Dispensation
11. The Ills of Prosperity—1942
12. The Ills of Prosperity—1943
13. Liquidation
14. Experience Elsewhere
15. Why They Failed
Notes and References to Sources
Some Names Prominent in the Story
About the Author