Shapers of the Great Debate on the Great Society: A Biographical Dictionary

(Hardback)

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In 1964 President Lyndon Johnson announced his vision of the Great Society, a plan to use the power of the national government to create a better society. Johnson's Great Society was all-encompassing, but the debate about its particulars centered on specific questions dealing with civil rights, poverty, federal aid to education, health care, and the proper role of the national government and its appropriate limitation. This work describes the lives of the individuals involved in these debates and presents their varying perspectives on these issues. Readers will understand how both these individuals' lives and the times in which they found themselves living shaped their political and philosophical views. Biographies include Lyndon Johnson, Martin Luther King Jr., Strom Thurmond, and Edith Green. An introductory essay, an appendix of shorter entries on additional figures, and a bibliography are also included. The Shapers of the Great Debate series takes a biographical approach to history, following the premise that people make history in the circumstances in which they find themselves. Each volume in this series examines the lives and experiences of the individual's involved in a particular debate through major and minor biographies.

Reviews

This volume by Bowling examines the lives of 19 individuals, both political insiders and outsiders, involved in this debate. Aimed at students and general readers, biographical entries are grouped under one of three subheadings--Building a Great Society, Challenging the Great Society, Both For and Against--based on individuals' debate positions. This organization greatly facilitates quicker access for readers needing to locate a particular perspective. As expected, biographies are included for Lyndon Johnson, Martin Luther King Jr., and William F. Buckley, but the genuine scholarly addition of this work involves entries of nonhousehold names such as LBJ's speech writer, Richard Goodwin, and Edward Banfield, author of the influential work The Unheavenly City (1970).Recommended. All levels. * Choice *
[P]rovides an A-Z bibliographic reference to survey the history of President Lyndon Johnson's vision of the Great Society, a master plan to use the national government's powers to create a better society. Debates about the concept dealt with all aspects of society from federal aid and health care to the increasing powers of the federal government. * MBR Internet Bookwatch *

Author Bio

Lawson Bowling is Associate Professor and Chairman of the Department of History at Manhattanville College.