The Bonus Army: An American Epic by Paul Dickson and Thomas B. Allen

$13.95

Smoke could be seen rising from the ruins of the Bonus Army's Anacostia camp on the morning after troops—using tear gas, bayonets, and torches—drove out the veterans and their families. "And this," said a veteran's wife, "because they cry for food....Because they beg for work."

"A revealing and fascinating account ... The book's most haunting aspect is its verbal and pictorial record of the marchers' individual experiences ... For all the defeats that the Bonus Army endured, its struggle paved the way for the G.I. Bill of Rights. And it underscored the power that could be unleashed by the marcher who made himself 'a petition in boots.'" —Janet Maslin, New York Times

In the summer of 1932, at the height of the Depression, some forty-five thousand World War I veterans—Black and white together—descended on Washington, D.C., from all over the country to demand the bonus promised them eight years earlier for their wartime service. Fearing violence after the Senate defeated the "bonus bill," Herbert Hoover's Army Chief of Staff Douglas MacArthur led tanks through the streets on July 28 to evict the bonus marchers.

Through seminal research, including interviews with the last surviving witnesses, Paul Dickson and Thomas B Allen tell the full and dramatic story of the Bonus Army, recovering the voices of ordinary men who dared tilt at powerful injustice.

Paperback, 370pp, Notes, Index, Bibliography, Appendix, B/W photos

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