Measuring America: How an Untamed Wilderness Shaped the United States and Fulfilled the Promise of Democracy (review)

sisted of exhausted land and low-skilled laborers. So the South got basictraining camps and contracts for cellulose (produced from cotton fiber and used in making ammunition and synthetics). During the Vietnam War era the South finally received its equitable share of contracts, but only for “conventional supplies” like cotton fabric for uniforms. Contracts requiring modern plants and high-skilled workers went elsewhere, the reconversion of the Redstone Arsenal being another noted exception. Boosters who had hoped for a sure economic footing in government procurement industries found an unreliable partner. Defense downsizing and deindustrialization are opportunities for policy makers to “rethink an aging set of development policies,” Carlton advises (p. 162). Yet Alabamians, perhaps rightly suspicious of government spending, voted for aging polices. That choice, added to the evidence from which the authors argue so persuasively, sadly bolsters the sobering thesis of this important volume.