Tagged "Roosevelt's Tree Army," or "the Soil Soldiers," the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) was not a military program, but it was modeled on military organization and incorporated the military spirit of public service. Established in 1933, the CCC was one of many programs in the New Deal's war against the economic depression. In his 1933 inaugural address, President Franklin D. Roosevelt asked Congress for "broad Executive power to wage a war" against the Depression and for power "that would be given to me if we were in fact invaded by a foreign foe." In many ways the New Deal's recovery programs were conceived as if the United States were at war, such as the National Recovery Administration that was modeled after the War Industries Board that President Woodrow Wilson had created to mobilize the nation's economy to win World War I.

Created during the...