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Launching the War on Poverty

An Oral History

Michael L Gillette author

Format:Paperback

Publisher:Oxford University Press Inc

Published:29th Jul '10

Currently unavailable, and unfortunately no date known when it will be back

Launching the War on Poverty cover

The Economic Opportunity Act of 1964 was one of the great legislative triumphs of Lyndon Johnson's presidency. In Launching the War on Poverty, forty-nine veterans of this unprecedented legislative effort tell their stories, offering a fascinating inside look at how Community Action, Head Start, the Job Corps, Legal Services, and other efforts went from brainstorming sessions in Washington to real-life programs in low-income neighborhoods throughout the nation. As the interviews reveal the idealism of the 1960s, they also capture the excitement and disappointment, the determination and doubt, the cut-and-thrust of American lawmaking, and the sheer force of the personalities involved. This second edition offers a new introduction that shows how many of these programs survived a volatile beginning to become accepted, permanent elements of domestic policy. In addition, the book now includes transcripts of Johnson's pivotal phone conversations, underscoring the president's determination and resourcefulness, his judgments of personnel and programs, and his sensitivity to political fallout. There is an updated bibliography with a list of web and archival sources on the War on Poverty.

Launching the War on Poverty in its revised form will continue to provide specialists in the areas of public policy and the domestic reforms of the 1960s with an important record of one of the most ambitious programs of Johnson's Great Society. * Sound Historian *

ISBN: 9780195387278

Dimensions: 155mm x 229mm x 28mm

Weight: 672g

480 pages

2nd Revised edition