Lyndon B. Johnson and American Liberalism: A Brief Biography with Documents / Edition 2

by Bruce Schulman

Overview

Examine the issues and controversies that grew out of Lyndon Johnsons presidency which have renewed importance today through the voices of Johnson, his aides, his opponents, and his interpreters in Lyndon B. Johnson and American Liberalism.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780312416331
Publisher:	Bedford/St. Martin's
Publication date:	08/01/2006
Series:	Bedford Cultural Editions Series
Edition description:	Second Edition
Pages:	320
Product dimensions:	5.46(w) x 8.64(h) x 0.58(d)

About the Author

BRUCE J. SCHULMAN is professor of history and American studies at Boston University. He is the author of The Seventies: The Great Shift in American Culture, Society, and Politics (2001), a New York Times Notable Book of the Year, and From Cotton Belt to Sunbelt: Federal Policy, Economic Development, and the Transformation of the South, 1938–1980 (1991). A frequent contributor to the Los Angeles Times, New York Times, San Jose Mercury News and numerous other publications, Professor Schulman has held research fellowships from the National Endowment for the Humanities, the Charles Warren Center for Studies in American History, and the Marjorie Kovler Fund of the Blum-Kovler Foundation. In 2004, the Organization of American Historians named him to its Distinguished Lectureship program. Schulman is currently at work on a volume for the Oxford History of the United States series covering the years 1896–1929.

Table of Contents

Foreword
Preface

PART ONE
INTRODUCTION: LYNDON B. JOHNSON AND AMERICAN LIBERALISM
1. The Perfect Roosevelt Man: Young Lyndon Johnson, 1908–1948
From the Hill Country to Capitol Hill
The New Deal
The Best Congressman a District Ever Had
Money and Politics, Texas-Sized

2. Democratic Leader: Senator Johnson, 1948–1960
Shifting Right: Cold War Liberalism
E=LBJ: The Senate Leader
Becoming a National Figure: The Leader and the Issues

3. Let Us Continue: LBJ and the Kennedy Legacy, 1960–1964
The Vice President
Years of Frustration: JFK and the Liberal Agenda
Let Us Continue: The Transition
President in His Own Right

4. The Great Society
Johnsonian Liberalism
Chief Legislator
The Not-So-Great Society: Implementing LBJs Program
Assessing the Great Society

5. Shall We Overcome? LBJ and the Civil Rights Revolution
We Shall Overcome: The Voting Rights Act of 1965
Fire in the Streets
A New and Bewildering Stage: Toward Affirmative Action
LBJ and Civil Rights

6. That Bitch of a War: LBJ and Vietnam
A Fat, Juicy Worm: The United States and Vietnam, 1945–1963
Americanizing the War, 1963–1965
Lyndon Johnsons War
The Credibility Gap and the Home Front
No More Vietnams

7. Dumping Johnson: The Decline and Fall of American Liberalism
Guns, Butter, and Stagflation
The End of the Johnson Era

PART TWO
THE DOCUMENTS
Let us Continue: Johnson Assumes the Presidency
The Kennedy Legacy: LBJs First Speech as President
1. Lyndon B. Johnson, Address Before a Joint Session of the Congress, November 27, 1963
The Warren Commission: Johnson Applies The Treatment to Senator Russell
2. Lyndon B. Johnson and Richard Russell, Phone Conversation, November 29, 1963, 8:55 p.m.
Shaping the Debate: LBJ Persuades Washington Post Publisher Katharine Graham
3. Lyndon B. Johnson and Katharine Graham, Phone Conversation, December 2, 1963, 11:10 a.m.
Perspectives on the Great Society
Launching the Great Society
4. Lyndon B. Johnson, Remarks at the University of Michigan, May 22, 1964
A Time for Choosing: A Conservative Criticizes Johnsonian Liberalism
5. Ronald Reagan, Address on Behalf of Senator Goldwater, October 27, 1964
A Poverty Warrior Defends the Great Society
6. Joseph A. Califano Jr., How Great Was the Great Society?, 1986
A Conservative Thinker Assails the Great Society
7. George Gilder, From Wealth and Poverty, 1981
Poverty: The Statistical Record
8. U.S. Census Bureau, Persons Below Poverty Level and Below 125 Percent of Poverty Level: 1959–2002
Racial Conflict and the Civil Rights Revolution
We Shall Overcome: The Voting Rights Speech
9. Lyndon B. Johnson, The American Promise: Special Message to the Congress, March 15, 1965
A New Militance in Black America
10. James Farmer, We Must Be in a Position of Power: Address before the CORE National Convention, July 1, 1965
From Civil Rights to Affirmative Action
11. Lyndon B. Johnson, To Fulfill These Rights: Commence-ment Address at Howard University, June 4, 1965
War at Home and Abroad: Martin Luther King Jr. Opposes the Vietnam War
12. Martin Luther King Jr., Beyond Vietnam: Speech at Riverside Church Meeting, April 4, 1967
Vietnam
LBJ Outlines His War Aims
13. Lyndon B. Johnson, Peace without Conquest: Address at Johns Hopkins University, April 7, 1965
Johnson Agonizes Over Vietnam
14. Lyndon B. Johnson and Richard Russell, Phone Conversation, May 27, 1964, 10:55 a.m.
The Decision to Escalate — 1965
15. Jack Valenti, From A Very Human President, July 1965
We Can Win in Vietnam: Hawks Criticize LBJs Strategy
16. James Burnham, What Is the President Waiting For? June 28, 1966
The Student Left Opposes LBJ
17. Paul Potter, The Incredible War: Speech at the Washington Antiwar March, April 17, 1965
The Establishment Bows Out: Walter Cronkite Calls the War a Stalemate
18. Walter Cronkite, Mired in Stalemate, February 27, 1968
The End of Liberalism
LBJ Insists on Guns and Butter
19. Lyndon B. Johnson, Annual Message to the Congress on the State of the Union, January 12, 1966
The Liberal Coalition Breaks Up
20. George C. Wallace, Speech at Madison Square Garden, October 24, 1968

Appendixes
An LBJ Chronology (1908–1975)
Questions for Consideration
Selected Bibliography

Index

Editorial Reviews

"This short, well-paced, well-told story of LBJ and liberalism amazes and impresses me. My students loved learning from it; I loved teaching from it."—Gil Troy, McGill University
"This account is the best brief introduction to one of this nation's most enduringly fascinating and enigmatic presidents. Schulman, in a fair, careful, and insightful manner, grapples with Lyndon Johnson's earthy folksiness, grandiose dreams, and tragic miscalculations. This is an excellent textbook."—Carlos Blanton, Texas A&M University

From the Publisher