| The War on Poverty: A New Grassroots History, 1964-1980 Contributor(s): Orleck, Annelise (Editor), Hazirjian, Lisa Gayle (Editor) |
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ISBN: 0820331015 ISBN-13: 9780820331010 Publisher: University of Georgia Press OUR PRICE: $119.74 Product Type: Hardcover - Other Formats Published: November 2011 |
| Additional Information |
| BISAC Categories: - Social Science | Poverty & Homelessness - Political Science | Public Policy - Social Services & Welfare - History | United States - 20th Century |
| Dewey: 362.556 |
| LCCN: 2011012914 |
| Physical Information: 1.31" H x 6" W x 9" (1.96 lbs) 480 pages |
| Themes: - Chronological Period - 20th Century |
| Descriptions, Reviews, Etc. |
| Publisher Description: Lyndon Johnson's War on Poverty has long been portrayed as the most potent symbol of all that is wrong with big government. Conservatives deride the War on Poverty for corruption and the creation of "poverty pimps," and even liberals carefully distance themselves from it. Examining the long War on Poverty from the 1960s onward, this book makes a controversial argument that the programs were in many ways a success, reducing poverty rates and weaving a social safety net that has proven as enduring as programs that came out of the New Deal. The War on Poverty also transformed American politics from the grass roots up, mobilizing poor people across the nation. Blacks in crumbling cities, rural whites in Appalachia, Cherokees in Oklahoma, Puerto Ricans in the Bronx, migrant Mexican farmworkers, and Chinese immigrants from New York to California built social programs based on Johnson's vision of a greater, more just society. Contributors to this volume chronicle these vibrant and largely unknown histories while not shying away from the flaws and failings of the movement--including inadequate funding, co-optation by local political elites, and blindness to the reality that mothers and their children made up most of the poor. In the twenty-first century, when one in seven Americans receives food stamps and community health centers are the largest primary care system in the nation, the War on Poverty is as relevant as ever. This book helps us to understand the turbulent era out of which it emerged and why it remains so controversial to this day. |
Contributor Bio(s): Germany, Kent B.: - KENT B. GERMANY, a native of Louisiana and former resident of New Orleans, is Assistant Professor of History and African American Studies at the University of South Carolina. Previously he was Deputy Director of the Presidential Recordings Program and director of the LBJ Project at the University of Virginia's Miller Center of Public Affairs. He is co-host of "For The Record," a PBS program on politics and history, and is coeditor of two books about Lyndon Johnson and the 1960s: The Kennedy Assassination and the Transfer of Power and Toward the Great Society.Bauman, Robert: - ROBERT BAUMAN is an associate professor of history at Washington State University and the author of Race and the War on Poverty: From Watts to East L.A.Ashmore, Susan Youngblood: - SUSAN YOUNGBLOOD ASHMORE is a professor of history at Oxford College of Emory University. She is the author of Carry It On: The War on Poverty and the Civil Rights Movement in Alabama, 1964-1972.Phelps, Wesley G.: - WESLEY G. PHELPS is an assistant professor of history at Sam Houston State University.Orleck, Annelise: - ANNELISE ORLECK is a professor of history at Dartmouth College. She is the author or editor of four previous books including Storming Caesars Palace: How Black Mothers Fought Their Own War on Poverty.Hazirjian, Lisa Gayle: - LISA GAYLE HAZIRJIAN is an activist and independent scholar. |