Results by title

As part of President Johnson's War on Poverty, VISTA volunteers in the 1960s began fanning out across the United States to try to break the cycle of poverty in which many Americans were caught. This work takes a close look at the effect these volunteers had on Arkansas communities and, in turn, the effect the communities had on the volunteers.

The author has taken the concept of organizational culture from corporate literature and applied it to two unique government programs the Peace Corps and VISTA. The book traces the ongoing conflict between partisan ideology and the organizational culture formulated during the Kennedy and Johnson years. It follows an often intense struggle between political appointees on one side and career employees, volunteers, and returned volunteers on the other. Political ideologies may vary depending upon which political party controls the presidency, but the contest for control of the agencies continues.