The Bonus Army is a term created for the WWI veterans marching on Washington to demand the bonuses they were promised for serving in WWI. Interesting study! They were treated in some cases well by people helping them get to Washington. Then poorly by the politicians and the military. A lot of research went into this book. If you are interested in post WWI, the depressian era and the administrations of Hoover and FDR this would be good read. Recommended. ( )

As this is not my best period in American history, I'm reluctant to wax too authoritative about this work. However, Dickson & Allen are at their best in giving the flavor of what it was like to be a participant in this great mass protest, and how the rank and file tried to maintain their dignity while at the same time doing their level best to prevent those in authority from ignoring their plight. What particularly stands out is that this was an integrated protest, and how the main body of protestors themselves worked to keep Communist agitators at arms-length (not that Douglas MacArthur and the Army's Military Intelligence Division noticed).

Perhaps one anecdote sums up the book best, as when a new bonus army arrived in Washington, DC in 1933, FDR's response was to treat the protestors as constituents (no matter his unwillingness to privilege their demands), instead of as a threat, as Hoover did. The observation from one participant being that: "Hoover sent the army. Roosevelt sent his wife."

From there the work winds down as the authors work through the immediate aftermath of the veterans' protests, of how the ghastly disaster of work camps filled with veterans being obliterated in Key West during the Labor Day Hurricane of 1935 finally paved the way for the bonus to be paid, to the creation of the GI Bill, and ending with the continuing tradition of mass protest descending on Washington in the spirit of petition. ( )

I signed them to speak to the Friends of the Library and what neat and fascinating people. The book is pretty good too. Mine is signed. ( )