Date of Award
2024
Document Type
Open Access Master's Thesis
Degree Name
Master of Science in Industrial Heritage and Archaeology (MS)
Administrative Home Department
Department of Social Sciences
Advisor 1
LouAnn Wurst
Committee Member 1
Steven A. Walton
Committee Member 2
Laura Walikainen Rouleau
Abstract
In this thesis, I use data from Camp Au Train, a Civilian Conservation Corp camp in Michigan’s Hiawatha National Forest, as a case study to connect the everyday life of enrollees with dominant government narratives while including a focus on labor and the capitalist crisis of the Great Depression. Using the vantage point of work, play, study, and health, I integrate archaeological, historic, and photographic evidence to show contradictions between the enrollees’ real lived experience and the dominant perspectives of the CCC ‘authorities’ who organized their lives. I argue that to interpret these contradictions, the CCC needs to be connected to the larger context of labor and capitalism. These insights are crucial for understanding contemporary calls for a New New Deal to address men’s lost jobs and the ‘crisis of masculinity’ in order to make meaningful changes toward solving these real problems for the future.
Recommended Citation
Iwanicki, Josef T., "“NOT MUCH OF A JOB”: EVERYDAY LIFE AND LABOR AT CAMP AU TRAIN", Open Access Master's Thesis, Michigan Technological University, 2024.