How things worked

Presents a history of the public works program called the Civilian Conservation Corp, including how the corps came about, the process applicants went through to get in, and what jobs they did. The text also explains how the camps and work sites were run, how enrollees spent their leisure time, and how the second World War brought the end of the program, and how it gave birth to contemporary forestry and the modern environmental movement.

Demonstrates how the American economy emerges in patterns of "irrationally exuberant" highs which lead to painful lows, providing examples of the worst practices and circumstances, and discusses market mechanisms, popular pressures, and the workings or failings of regulation.