Government Project

Government Project tells the story of an attempt by the

US government to remake the lives of some of its citizens by establishing a cooperative

farm in Pinal County, Arizona, in 1937. These individuals were among the most

desperately poor and disadvantaged in the nation.

Casa Grande Valley Farms was an elaborate venture that provided

the Americans who volunteered to settle there with housing, work, and the

opportunity to earn income. For five years, the farm succeeded. The revenues

from the sale of its crops gave the Casa Grande settlers material comfort and

wealth far beyond what they had ever possessed.

But in the farm's seventh year of operation, the inhabitants

shuttered it and walked away with hardly anything, to the shock and dismay of

the government officials overseeing it.

Government Project explains what went wrong at Casa

Grande. In telling this story, it illuminates larger truths about human nature

and the limits of governance.