Book excerpt: "This manuscript examines the Farm Security Administration's political and administrative history and assesses the ideology of the institution against the overall goals of the New Deal. Roberts argues that the FSA's operating procedure in the rural south was woefully inadequate, stemming from a misunderstanding of rural poverty from leading New Dealers, a bogged-down bureaucracy that offered contradictory advice to southern farmers, and ineffective on-the-ground efforts by FSA agents"--