Description
Head Start, Job Corps, Foster Grandparents, College Work-Study, VISTA, Community Action, and the Legal Services Corporation are familiar programs, but their tumultuous beginning has been largely forgotten. Conceived amid the daring idealism of the 1960s, these programs originated as weapons in Lyndon Johnson's War on Poverty, an offensive spearheaded by a controversial new government agency. Within months, the Office of Economic Opportunity created an array of unconventional initiatives that empowered the poor, challenged the established order, and ultimately transformed the nation's attitudes toward poverty.In Launching the War on Poverty, historian Michael L. Gillette weaves together oral history interviews with the architects of the Great Society's boldest experiment. Forty-nine former poverty warriors, including Sargent Shriver, Adam Yarmolinsky, and Lawrence F. O'Brien, recount this inside story of unprecedented governmental innovation. The interviews capture the excitement and heady optimism of Americans in the 1960s along with their conflicts and disillusionment.This new edition of Launching the War on Poverty adds the voice of Lyndon Johnson to the story with excerpts from his recently-released White House telephone conversations. In these colorful and brutally candid conversations, LBJ exercises his full arsenal of presidential powers, political leverage, and legendary persuasiveness to win one of his most difficult legislative battles. The second edition also documents how the OEO's offspring survived their volatile origins to become broadly supported features of domestic policy.
Table of Contents
AcknowledgmentsIntroductionChapter 1: Camelot Confronts the Culture of PovertyChapter 2: The War on Poverty Task ForceChapter 3: Creating the Community Action ProgramChapter 4: Employment versus PovertyChapter 5: Rural ProgramsChapter 6: The Enactment of Poverty LegislationChapter 7: The Office of Economic Opportunity: "The Most Action in Town"Chapter 8: The Job CorpsChapter 9: The Community Action ProgramChapter 10: An Early Success: Project Head StartChapter 11: Advocates for the Poor: VISTA and the Legal Services ProgramChapter 12: Delegated ProgramsChapter 13: Challenges to Head StartChapter 14: The Job Corps under SiegeChapter 15: "Keeping the Trash in One Pile": Legislative BattlesChapter 16: OEO's Struggle to EndureChapter 17: Epilogue and AssessmentsAppendix: Oral History InterviewsNotesBibliographyWebsitesIndex
