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Author Bass, Melissa.

Title The politics and civics of national service : lessons from the Civilian Conservation Corps, Vista, and AmeriCorps / Melissa Bass
Published Washington, D.C. : Brookings Institution Press, [2013]

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Description 1 online resource (xi, 304 pages)
Contents Introduction : national service as public policy for democracy -- Citizenship and the elements of policy design -- The CCC's roots and relationships -- The CCC's purpose and government's role -- The CCC's tools, rules, and targets -- VISTA's roots and relationships -- VISTA's purpose and government's role -- VISTA's tools, rules, and targets -- AmeriCorps's roots and relationships -- AmeriCorps's purpose and government's role -- AmeriCorps's tools, rules, and targets -- Making sense of the past and its lessons for the future
Summary In this book, the author focuses on the history, relevance, and impact of domestic national service. She argues that only by examining programs over time can we understand national service's successes and limitations, both in terms of its political support and its civic lessons. Based on extensive archival and documentary research, supplemented with interviews, this book provides a detailed policy history of VISTA and AmeriCorps and of America's main national service programs taken together as a whole. Moreover, the author furthers our understanding of twentieth-century American political development by comparing programs founded during three distinct political eras - the New Deal, the Great Society, and the early Clinton years - and tracing them over time. To a remarkable extent, the CCC, VISTA, and AmeriCorps reflect the policymaking ethos and political controversies of their times, illuminating principles that hold well beyond the field of national service. This book evaluates the civic effects of national service policy in the context of political development in the United States. At the same time, by emphasizing the programs' effects on citizenship and civic engagement, this volume deepens our understanding of how programs can act as "public policy for democracy." -- Publisher's website
Bibliography Includes bibliographical references (pages 249-294) and index
Notes English
Print version record
Subject Civilian Conservation Corps (U.S.)
AmeriCorps (Program : U.S.)
AmeriCorps*VISTA.
SUBJECT AmeriCorps (Program : U.S.) fast
AmeriCorps*VISTA fast
Civilian Conservation Corps (U.S.) fast
Subject National service -- United States
Voluntarism -- United States
POLITICAL SCIENCE -- Public Policy -- Social Services & Welfare.
SOCIAL SCIENCE -- Human Services.
SOCIAL SCIENCE -- Volunteer Work.
National service
Voluntarism
United States
Form Electronic book
LC no. 2012045776
ISBN 9780815723813
0815723814