John F. Kennedy,Lyndon Johnson,and the politics of poverty,1960-1967.
详细信息
- 作者：Andrews ; Theodore Howard.
- 学历：Doctor
- 年：1998
- 导师：Kennedy,David M.,eadvisor
- 毕业院校：Stanford University
- ISBN：9780591908015
- CBH：9837057
- Country：USA
- 语种：English
- FileSize：18353723
- Pages：375
文摘
This study concerns the war on poverty--why it broke out in 1964 and why,just three years later,it effectively ended with such a dispiriting fizzle. In considering these two questions,the study highlights the role that political considerations played in launching and ending the poverty program. Two factors emerge as critical. During the Kennedy administration and during the first years of Johnsons presidency,Democratic presidents sought to devise a program that would unite the disparate wings of their party. The war on poverty was one such effort. At the same time,Kennedy and Johnson were almost neuralgically aware of the need to prepare legislation that a Congress dominated by ideologically conservative committee chairmen would pass. For the poverty program,the attempt to achieve these conflicting aims resulted in a series of oftentimes squalid bargains that all but ensured that the poverty program would face enormous difficulties after it became law. The first chapter details the essential background to "war," the way in which the prosperity ignited by World War II lifted most Americans into the middle class,in the process altering the way in which our political system dealt with the poor. Chapters two through four discuss how the Kennedy administration approached the issue of poverty； chapter five considers the role of Lyndon Johnson in securing the programs passage. The last section,"Epilogue," shows how the exertions required to pass the bill led to administrative chaos before Congress effectively halted the program in 1967. By concentrating on the narrow range of options that the political situation offered Kennedy and Johnson,this study stands in contrast to the work of scholars like Allen Matusow,James Patterson,Daniel Moynihan,Ira Katznelson,and Richard Cloward. Their work emphasizes problems inherent in postwar liberalism. These conclusions have some validity but,by delving into the different archival sources,the present study shows that politics were very important too. In addition to papers at the Kennedy and Johnson presidential libraries,this study makes use of Labor Department records,many of which highlight the importance of political concerns.