That’s how James Bovard describes the federal government’s abusive methods for getting the land for Shenandoah National Park in his review of a book about that entitled Shenandoah: A Story of Conservation and Betrayal.
Many people were ripped off by the feds, but that didn’t matter in the great enthusiasm for New Deal programs.
Bovard writes, ” Families had lived and worked on those ridges and hollows since the 1700s and flourishing communities dotted the landscape. But when they refused to vacate their land to satisfy a grand political vision, they were quickly tarred as know-nothing sociopaths.”
