Building the Great Society

September 1, 2017

The Civil Rights Act of 1964, the Voting Rights Act of 1965, Medicare, Medicaid, Head Start, environmental reform--all are part of President Lyndon Baines Johnson's Great Society legacy. And all are under threat today, which makes this study of the hard work done by LBJ staffers to implement these programs particularly valuable. From Politico contributing editor Zeitz, author of the New York Times best-selling Lincoln's Boys.

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November 15, 2017
A behind-the-scenes study of Lyndon Baines Johnson's presidency."He was a crass political operator and liberal idealist," Politico contributing editor Zeitz (Lincoln's Boys: John Hay, John Nicolay, and the War for Lincoln's Image, 2014, etc.) says about his complex subject, "an unbridled opportunist and steadfast champion of the poor, a southern temporizer and civil rights trailblazer, a progressive hero and bete noire of the antiwar Left." Beginning with John F. Kennedy's final days and ending with Richard Nixon's rise to power, the author embarks on a fine-grained exploration of LBJ's Great Society. More specifically, Zeitz zeroes in on the many players in LBJ's administration, including, among many others, Jack Valenti, Horace Busby, Bill Moyers, Walter Heller, Richard Goodwin, and Abe Fortas. The author walks readers through the difficulties Johnson encountered passing the Civil Rights Acts of 1964 and 1966, his notorious "War on Poverty," the implementation of life-changing initiatives such as Medicare, and the relentless situation in Vietnam. Though it's easy to remember Johnson as the president who led the war in Vietnam, Zeitz reminds us of many other elements of his presidency, especially his efforts to integrate and end race disputes. In what is an extremely detailed account of a highly controversial presidency--one that attempted to address and resolve issues that are, unfortunately, still around today--the author offers his readers a red flag: we must wake up to the fact that many of today's significant issues are not new, and we must look to the lessons of the past to continue in the footsteps of all those who have tried so hard to build a better society. "Even as this book goes to print," writes the author, "the enduring value of the Great Society is no longer an academic question or political talking point but instead a real-world concern." Refreshingly, the only real change today is that women have come to occupy increasingly influential roles in the administrations that followed.An enlightening look at the political foundations of 20th-century hope.

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January 15, 2018
In this probing study of domestic policy in the Johnson Administration, historian and journalist Zeitz (Lincoln’s Boys). argues that battles over civil rights and anti-poverty measures were as fierce as those over the Vietnam War. Zeitz examines the crafting and implementation of L.B.J.’s Great Society agenda: the landmark Civil Rights and Voting Rights Acts, as well as Medicare and Medicaid, which together profoundly changed American life and the role of government; food stamps, Head Start, and federal school-aid measures; and the controversial “community action” programs that funded citizens’ groups as they organized, protested, and sued local governments, which felt to beleaguered Democratic mayors like a war on them rather than a War on Poverty. Zeitz’s lively narrative foregrounds the personalities and power plays of Johnson’s White House staff—genteel press secretary Bill Moyers emerges as both a liberal idealist and a “ruthless” bureaucratic operator—under the tyrannical L.B.J., infamous for his castration taunts and compulsory nude pool parties. Zeitz also explores the sociology motivating the policy-makers; they were convinced that the poor could be better helped by social and cultural opportunity and integration than by redistributing money, a conviction that eventually foundered on economic slowdown and white backlash. Zeitz’s lucid account yields engrossing insights into one of America’s most hopeful, productive, and tragic political eras. Agent: Andrew Wylie, Wylie Agency.