Building the Great Society : inside Lyndon Johnson's White House / Joshua Zeitz.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Zeitz, Joshua, author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Johnson, Lyndon B. (Lyndon Baines), 1908-1973.

Johnson, Lyndon B.

Social policy.

United States--Politics and government--1963-1969.

United States.

Politics and government.

United States--Economic policy--1961-1971.

Economic policy.

United States--Social policy--20th century.

HISTORY / United States / 20th Century.

POLITICAL SCIENCE / Public Policy / Social Policy.

BIOGRAPHY & AUTOBIOGRAPHY / Presidents & Heads of State.

Local Subjects:

HISTORY / United States / 20th Century.

POLITICAL SCIENCE / Public Policy / Social Policy.

BIOGRAPHY & AUTOBIOGRAPHY / Presidents & Heads of State.

Physical Description:

xviii, 378 pages ; 24 cm

Place of Publication:

New York, New York : Viking, [2018]

Summary:

LBJ's towering political skills and his ambitious slate of liberal legislation are the stuff of legend: the Civil Rights Act of 1964, the Voting Rights Act of 1965, Medicare, Medicaid, Head Start, and environmental reform. But what happened after the bills passed? One man could not and did not go it alone. Joshua Zeitz reanimates the creative and contentious atmosphere inside Johnson's White House as a talented and energetic group of advisers made LBJ's vision a reality. They desegregated public and private institutions throughout one third of the United States; built Medicare and Medicaid from the ground up in one year; launched federal funding for public education; provided food support for millions of poor children and adults; and launched public television and radio, all in the space of five years, even as Vietnam strained the administration's credibility and budget. Bill Moyers, Jack Valenti, Joe Califano, Harry McPherson and the other staff members who comprised LBJ's inner circle were men as pragmatic and ambitious as Johnson, equally skilled in the art of accumulating power or throwing a sharp elbow. Building the Great Society is the story of how one of the most competent White House staffs in American history - serving one of the most complicated presidents ever to occupy the Oval Office - fundamentally changed everyday life for millions of citizens and forged a legacy of compassionate and interventionist government.

Contents:

Put the ball through the hoop

Participation in prosperity

Second day

Revolutionary activity

Frontlash

A frustrating paradox

Completing the Fair Deal

Get 'em! Get the last ones!

The fabulous Eighty-ninth

Guns and butter

Backlash

You aren't a man in your own right

The thirty-first of March

Conclusion.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages 353-361) and index.

ISBN:

052542878X

9780525428787

OCLC:

991325682