A01=Laura Beth Daws
A01=Susan Lorene Brinson
Alabama
Author_Laura Beth Daws
Author_Susan Lorene Brinson
Category=JBCT
Category=JPP
Category=NHB
eq_bestseller
eq_history
eq_isMigrated=1
eq_isMigrated=2
eq_nobargain
eq_non-fiction
eq_society-politics
family relocation
FDR
franklin d. roosevelt
Guntersville Dam
Media studies
New Deal
New Deal Era
New Deal in Alabama
new deal programs
Newspaper history
North Alabama
North Alabama history
Pickwick Dam
Tennessee Valley Authority
TVA
TVA family relocation
Wheeler Dam
Product details
- ISBN 9780817320089
- Weight: 475g
- Dimensions: 152 x 231mm
- Publication Date: 12 Feb 2019
- Publisher: The University of Alabama Press
- Publication City/Country: US
- Product Form: Hardback
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Examines the role of press coverage in promoting the mission of the TVA, facilitating family relocation, and formulating the historical legacy of the New Deal.
For poverty-stricken families in the Tennessee River Valley during the Great Depression, news of President Franklin D. Roosevelt's New Deal plans to create the Tennessee Valley Authority—bringing the promise of jobs, soil conservation, and electricity—offered hope for a better life. The TVA dams would flood a considerable amount of land on the riverbanks, however, forcing many families to relocate. In exchange for this sacrifice for the “greater good,” these families were promised “fair market value” for their land. As the first geographic location to benefit from the electricity provided by TVA, the people of North Alabama had much to gain, but also much to lose.
In The Greater Good: Media, Family Removal, and TVA Dam Construction in North Alabama Laura Beth Daws and Susan L. Brinson describe the region's preexisting conditions, analyze the effects of relocation, and argue that local newspapers had a significant impact in promoting the TVA's agenda. The authors contend that it was principally through newspapers that local residents learned about the TVA and the process and reasons for relocation. Newspapers of the day encouraged regional cooperation by creating an overwhelmingly positive image of the TVA, emphasizing its economic benefits and disregarding many of the details of removal.
Using mostly primary research, the volume addresses two key questions: What happened to relocated families after they sacrificed their homes, lifestyles, and communities in the name of progress? And what role did mediated communication play in both the TVA's family relocation process and the greater movement for the public to accept the TVA's presence in their lives? The Greater Good offers a unique window into the larger impact of the New Deal in the South. Until now, most research on the TVA was focused on organizational development rather than on families, with little attention paid to the role of the media in garnering acceptance of a government-enforced relocation.
For poverty-stricken families in the Tennessee River Valley during the Great Depression, news of President Franklin D. Roosevelt's New Deal plans to create the Tennessee Valley Authority—bringing the promise of jobs, soil conservation, and electricity—offered hope for a better life. The TVA dams would flood a considerable amount of land on the riverbanks, however, forcing many families to relocate. In exchange for this sacrifice for the “greater good,” these families were promised “fair market value” for their land. As the first geographic location to benefit from the electricity provided by TVA, the people of North Alabama had much to gain, but also much to lose.
In The Greater Good: Media, Family Removal, and TVA Dam Construction in North Alabama Laura Beth Daws and Susan L. Brinson describe the region's preexisting conditions, analyze the effects of relocation, and argue that local newspapers had a significant impact in promoting the TVA's agenda. The authors contend that it was principally through newspapers that local residents learned about the TVA and the process and reasons for relocation. Newspapers of the day encouraged regional cooperation by creating an overwhelmingly positive image of the TVA, emphasizing its economic benefits and disregarding many of the details of removal.
Using mostly primary research, the volume addresses two key questions: What happened to relocated families after they sacrificed their homes, lifestyles, and communities in the name of progress? And what role did mediated communication play in both the TVA's family relocation process and the greater movement for the public to accept the TVA's presence in their lives? The Greater Good offers a unique window into the larger impact of the New Deal in the South. Until now, most research on the TVA was focused on organizational development rather than on families, with little attention paid to the role of the media in garnering acceptance of a government-enforced relocation.
Laura Beth Daws is an associate professor of communication at Kennesaw State University. She has published articles in Communication Teacher, Florida Communication Journal, Kentucky Communication Journal, and In Media Res.
Susan L. Brinson is a professor emeritus of mass communication at Auburn University. She is the author of Personal and Public Interests: Frieda B. Hennock and the Federal Communications Commission and The Red Scare, Politics, and the Federal Communications Commission, 1941–1960 and is coeditor of Transmitting the Past: Historical and Cultural Perspectives on Broadcasting.
Susan L. Brinson is a professor emeritus of mass communication at Auburn University. She is the author of Personal and Public Interests: Frieda B. Hennock and the Federal Communications Commission and The Red Scare, Politics, and the Federal Communications Commission, 1941–1960 and is coeditor of Transmitting the Past: Historical and Cultural Perspectives on Broadcasting.
