The Fierce Urgency of Now: Lyndon Johnson, Congress, and the Battle for the Great Society

by Julian E. Zelizer

Overview

A majestic, big-picture account of the Great Society and the forces that shaped it
 
Between November 1962, when he became president, and November 1966, when his party was routed in the midterm elections, Lyndon Johnson spearheaded the most transformative agenda in American politics since the New Deal. In just three years, he drove the passage of the Civil Rights and Voting Rights Acts, the War on Poverty, and Medicare and Medicaid, among a raft of other progressive initiatives. Dubbed the Great Society, it was an agenda whose ambition and achievement have never been matched, and it remains largely intact fifty years on. In The Fierce Urgency of Now, Julian E. Zelizer takes the full measure of the story in all its epic sweep. He provides unprecedented insight into the battles that raged inside Congress and the administration, and examines the often bitterly divided forces at play in the country—from religious groups and civil rights activists to labor unions and the media—during the tumultuous years when our political sights were set on the ideal of a Great Society.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780143128014
Publisher:	Penguin Publishing Group
Publication date:	12/22/2015
Pages:	384
Product dimensions:	5.40(w) x 8.30(h) x 1.10(d)

About the Author

Julian E. Zelizer is the Malcolm Stevenson Forbes, Class of 1941, Professor of History and Public Affairs at Princeton University and a fellow at New America. He is the author of numerous books on U.S. political history, including Jimmy Carter, Arsenal of Democracy, and Governing America.

Read an Excerpt

Lyndon Johnson hated being vice president. He was at heart a legislator who had been relegated to the sidelines of legislation. For almost three years he had watched John F. Kennedy fumble most of the big domestic issues of the day, either because the president was unwilling to take on the toughest challenges of the moment, or because he was too afraid of the political fallout, or because he knew he lacked the ability to win the legislative battles he faced on Capitol Hill. At the time of Kennedy’s death, most of his major domestic initiatives—including civil rights, a tax cut, federal assistance for education, and hospital insurance for the elderly—were stalled in Congress or had not yet been introduced there. Kennedy and his advisers had made a conscious decision to keep Lyndon Johnson out of their inner circle, despite his extensive experience on Capitol Hill, for fear that his well-known thirst for power would cause problems for the president.

At 4:00 a.m. on November 23, 1963, the day after Kennedy’s assassination gave him the presidency, Johnson reclined on his bed, his top advisers arrayed around him for an impromptu meeting. He mapped out a grand vision for his team. The new president told Jack Valenti, Bill Moyers, and Cliff Carter, with “relish and resolve,” according to Valenti, “I’m going to get Kennedy’s tax cut out of the Senate Finance Committee, and we’re going to get this economy humming again. Then I’m going to pass Kennedy’s civil rights bill, which has been hung up too long in the Congress. And I’m going to pass it without changing a single comma or a word. After that we’ll pass legislation that allows everyone anywhere in this country to vote, with all the barriers down. And that’s not all. We’re going to get a law that says every boy and girl in this country, no matter how poor, or the color of their skin, or the region they come from, is going to be able to get all the education they can take by loan, scholarship, or grant, right from the federal government.” After pausing to catch his breath, almost as if exhausted by his own ambitions, the president concluded, “And I aim to pass Harry Truman’s medical insurance bill that got nowhere before.”

Jack Valenti’s recollection of that moment perfectly portrays the Lyndon Johnson who had suddenly become the nation’s leader. He was a creature of Congress, a legislator by character and long experience, who was determined to push through a transformative body of laws that would constitute nothing less than a second New Deal.

(Continues…)

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Excerpted from "The Fierce Urgency of Now"
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Copyright © 2015 Julian E. Zelizer.
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Table of Contents

Chapter 1 The Challenges of a Liberal Presidency 1

Chapter 2 Deadlocked Democracy 11

Chapter 3 New President, Same Old Congress 61

Chapter 4 Legislating Civil Rights 85

Chapter 5 How Barry Goldwater Built the Great Society 131

Chapter 6 The Fabulous Eighty-Ninth Congress 163

Chapter 7 Congressional Conservatism Revived 225

Chapter 8 The Triumph of Austerity Politics 263

Chapter 9 The Endurance of the Great Society 303

Acknowledgments 325

Notes 329

Illustration Credits 355

Index 357

What People are Saying About This

author of Fear Itself: The New Deal and the Origins of Our Time - Ira Katznelson

With dramatic flair, Julian Zelizer's deft pen illuminates how, against odds, the Great Society became possible when a Texan president broke the South's logjam on civil rights. Written by a rare historian who gives Congress its due, this incisive account of lawmaking during the short-lived liberal moment of the mid-1960s creatively embeds the play of legislative affairs within large and demanding features of American politics and society. The legacy, he shows, has been profound.

From the Publisher

With dramatic flair, Julian Zelizer's deft pen illuminates how, against odds, the Great Society became possible when a Texan president broke the South's logjam on civil rights. Written by a rare historian who gives Congress its due, this incisive account of lawmaking during the short-lived liberal moment of the mid-1960s creatively embeds the play of legislative affairs within large and demanding features of American politics and society. The legacy, he shows, has been profound.
—Ira Katznelson, author of Fear Itself: The New Deal and the Origins of Our Time

In The Fierce Urgency of Now, Julian Zelizer has illuminated with precision and elegance a critical juncture in American history. For roughly two years, from 1964 through 1965, the nation was receptive to the resurgence of liberalism. Zelizer compellingly describes the momentous achievements of this brief period, including enactment of the most important civil rights legislation in the nation's history, as well as Medicare and Medicaid, federal aid to education and a host of other initiatives that, in large part, survived the subsequent four decades of conservative ascendance. Zelizer holds the readers' attention from beginning to end in an expertly narrated political drama. This is a book not only for those who want to understand the present through the window of the past, but also for everyone who wants to read history at its best.
—Thomas B. Edsall, author of Chain Reaction and The Age of Austerity

A triumph of scholarship and concision. Zelizer is one of our leading historians of American public policy, and he shows it in this powerful, authoritative examination of 'The Battle for the Great Society,' the legacy of which reverberates down to our present day.
—Fredrik Logevall, Stephen and Madeline Anbinder Professor of History, Cornell University

In The Fierce Urgency of Now, Julian Zelizer provides an authoritative account of the factors that enabled Lyndon Johnson to pass monumental Civil Rights legislation and Great Society programs through the 88th and 89th Congresses, and his tragic miscalculations on Vietnam that led to his undoing. Zelizer's book is a valuable antidote to all those who say we just need Barack Obama to be more like Lyndon Johnson to get things done in Washington. Zelizer documents how Johnson's historic legislative achievements required huge majorities in both Houses, cooperative members of the minority party, and a social movement that backed equality and opportunity. Even Lyndon Johnson could not break the gridlock and obstruction of the 113th Congress.
—Alan Krueger, Professor of Economics and Public Policy, Princeton University; Former Chairman, White House Council of Economic Advisers

Previously circulated:

“In this astonishing book, Julian Zelizer takes this extraordinarily important but immensely complicated time in American history and makes it both clear and wildly entertaining. Here were political titans battling not just over legislation but literally to remake America, and at the heart of it all, was the charismatic, contradictory Lyndon Baines Johnson. In his superb re-visiting of the Johnson Presidency, Zelizer demolishes old myths and gives us new insights into this turbulent past which has so sharply defined our present day.”
—Robert Schenkkan, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of All the Way

Pulitzer Prize-winning author of All the Way - Robert Schenkkan

In this astonishing book, Julian Zelizer takes this extraordinarily important but immensely complicated time in American history and makes it both clear and wildly entertaining. Here were political titans battling not just over legislation but literally to remake America, and at the heart of it all, was the charismatic, contradictory Lyndon Baines Johnson. In his superb re-visiting of the Johnson Presidency, Zelizer demolishes old myths and gives us new insights into this turbulent past which has so sharply defined our present day.

Editorial Reviews

Kirkus:
A sort-of-liberal president faces an intransigent, obstructionist Congress: We mean Lyndon Johnson, of course, and the class of 1966. Zelizer, a lucid writer, doesn't need to cherry-pick to line up parallels with today…A smart, provocative study.”

Publishers Weekly: 
“Zelizer paints Johnson as a flawed—opportunistic, domineering, ambitious—yet impressive leader, who took advantage of a perfect storm of legislative and governmental conditions to push through an unprecedented number of projects and achievements; a president who gambled greatly while his party and a liberal majority were in ascendancy and won accordingly…His focus on the conflict between conservative and liberal factions is even more timely in today’s climate. Zelizer writes with an expert’s deep understanding of the subject.

From the Publisher

10/20/2014
Zelizer (Governing America), a professor of history and public affairs at Princeton University, turns his attention to the short, politically turbulent period in American politics from November 1963 to November 1966 when President Lyndon Johnson forged what has become known as the Great Society, which paved the path for many of today’s essential social programs. Zelizer paints Johnson as a flawed—opportunistic, domineering, ambitious—yet impressive leader, who took advantage of a perfect storm of legislative and governmental conditions to push through an unprecedented number of projects and achievements; a president who gambled greatly while his party and a liberal majority were in ascendancy and won accordingly. As Zelizer explains, “The political acumen Johnson and his colleagues on Capitol Hill possessed was essential, but what made the difference were the forces that temporarily reshaped Congress and broke the hold of conservatives on that notoriously inertial institution.” His focus on the conflict between conservative and liberal factions is even more timely in today’s climate. Zelizer writes with an expert’s deep understanding of the subject, but the dry tone and painstaking attention to detail make this a scholarly resource more than a casual item. Agent: Andrew Wylie, Wylie Agency. (Jan.)

Publishers Weekly

02/01/2015
In 1964, President Lyndon B. Johnson named his domestic program for civil rights and reform—in the areas of voting, housing, health care, and education—the "Great Society"; Zelizer (history and public affairs, Princeton Univ.) refers to it as our second New Deal. At the same time, the author argues that a shift in the mood of Congress offered a temporary opening for this epic run of lawmaking. By early 1965, with Congress reverted to its more usual position, it was all over. While Johnson had the political skill to take advantage of this brief window, Zelizer argues that our view of the Great Society is too "Johnson-centric" and the role of Congress is underplayed. He challenges implicitly our view as being too "Caro-centric" as well, since the latest volume in Robert Caro's Johnson biography, The Passage of Power (2012), is the historical script for most readers today. Zelizer, a regular commentator on CNN and elsewhere, is also an accomplished political historian, with books such as Governing America. VERDICT The author will engage academic readers with the nuance of his argument. While general readers will not find the grandeur of Robert Caro here, they will appreciate the clarity of Zelizer's writing and the brevity of his account. All readers will take note of his apt references to current Congressional dynamics and will discover in this book a fine complement to Caro's work. [See Prepub Alert, 7/21/14.]—Robert Nardini, Niagara Falls, NY

Library Journal

2014-10-22
A sort-of-liberal president faces an intransigent, obstructionist Congress: We mean Lyndon Johnson, of course, and the class of 1966.Zelizer (History and Public Affairs/Princeton Univ.; Governing America: The Revival of Political History, 2012, etc.), a lucid writer, doesn't need to cherry-pick to line up parallels with today. We—and many historians, he writes—tend to think of LBJ's Great Society initiatives as programs that sailed through the legislature and, as if by magic, bettered lives through various pieces of civil rights reforms and new institutions such as the Job Corps—which "caused more controversy," Zelizer writes, "than any other program in the [Equal Opportunity Act]." But why did the Job Corps cause such controversy? Because southerners, conservatives and state's rights stalwarts in Congress opposed any federal program that challenged homegrown traditions such as segregation. "While some southerners grumbled about any distribution of funds to African Americans," writes the author, "they were happy to see federal money go to the poor whites who were their constituent base." As Zelizer notes, considerable energy in Washington went to calumny over liberalism and conservative purity and pieties, the right wing having regained considerable ground in the 1950s after the years of exile during the New Deal era. The author writes carefully of how the filibuster was exercised to quash Johnson's programs by keeping them from coming up for a vote and of the "deadlocked democracy" that resulted. Johnson may have beaten Goldwater in 1964, but the right wing came rushing at him in the election of 1966, and of course, Richard Nixon followed two years later. The resulting opposition was fierce, and Johnson was defeated or stymied at many turns, including in his efforts to implement fair housing regulations, a nonstarter in the South—but, surprisingly, also in places like Chicago and Boston. It wasn't all the same, though: The Republicans had a moderate wing in those days. As with all Zelizer's books, this is a smart, provocative study.

Kirkus Reviews