Bonus Army An American Epic

In the summer of 1932, at the height of the Depression, some forty-five thousand World War I veteranswhites and blacks togetherdescended 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 story of the Bonus Army, recovering the voices of ordinary men who dared tilt at powerful injustice. The march ultimately transformed the nation, inspiring Congress to pass the GI Bill of Rights in 1944, one of the most important pieces of social legislation in our history, which in large part created America's middle class.Dickson, Paul is the author of 'Bonus Army An American Epic', published 2006 under ISBN 9780802777386 and ISBN 0802777384.