Research Catalog

Title

Guns or butter : the presidency of Lyndon Johnson / Irving Bernstein.

Author

Bernstein, Irving, 1916-

Publication

New York : Oxford University Press, 1996.

Items in the Library & Off-site

Holdings

Details

Description

x, 606 p., [32] p. of plates : ill.; 25 cm.

Summary

• The presidency of Lyndon Johnson was a pivotal moment in twentieth-century American history. From the decisive social programs of the Great Society, to the triumph of the Civil and Voting Rights Acts, to the catastrophe of the Vietnam War and domestic unrest, it was an era of dramatic accomplishment and wrenching tragedy. In Guns or Butter, renowned historian Irving Bernstein brings those five climactic years of the sixties vividly to life, from the moment Lee Harvey Oswald aimed a rifle from the window of the Texas School Depository to the tense ballot-counting that put Richard Nixon in the White House in 1968.
• From the dark moments after Kennedy's assassination in 1963, to the heady days of legislative victories of 1965, to the bloody crescendo of riots, assassinations, and military battles in 1968, Johnson's administration was a defining moment in modern American history. In Guns or Butter, Irving Bernstein brilliantly captures both the events and the meaning of those momentous years. Aside from its historical value, this book has major current significance. The legislative program Newt Gingrich and his Republican colleagues introduced in 1995 was designed to repeal the Great Society. Before doing so, members of Congress and the interested public should understand Lyndon Johnson's vision and the legislation that was enacted during the sixties. Guns or Butter provides that critical information.

Subject

• Johnson, Lyndon B. 1908-1973
• Umschulungswerkstätten für Siedler und Auswanderer Bitterfeld
• 1963-1969
• Geschichte 1950-2000
• Geschichte 1963-1969
• Presidents > United States > Biography
• United States > Politics and government > 1963-1969

Genre/Form

Biographies

Bibliography (note)

• Includes bibliographical references (p. 543-575) and index.

Processing Action (note)

• committed to retain

Contents

Fifteen days -- The tax cut -- The civil rights act of 1964 -- The war on poverty -- Prelude: the 1964 election -- Medicare: the jewel in the crown -- Breakthrough in education -- Selma and the Voting Rights Act -- Immigration: righting the national origins wrong -- The environment: from conservation to pollution -- Failure: the repeal of right-to-work -- Unhinging the state of the union -- Vietnam: sliding into the quagmire -- Launching the great inflation -- Turmoil at home -- Updating the minimum wage and social security -- Lyndon Johnson, patron of the arts -- Model cities -- The collapse of the Johnson presidency -- Guns or butter.

ISBN

0195063120 (cloth : acid-free paper)

LCCN

^^^94046879^

OCLC

• 31754828
• SCSB-10100581

Owning Institutions

Harvard Library