The Republican Party and the War on Poverty: 1964-1981

by Mark Mclay

Overview

Mark Maclay examines the part the Republican Party played in shaping and eventually curtailing President Johnson’s War on Poverty. Republican politicians and presidents consistently influenced how the ‘war’ was fought, before President Reagan symbolically ended the effort with his social welfare cuts in 1981. Drawing on original archives of Republican politicians across the United States, the author sheds light on the important dynamic that existed between the Republican Party, Congress and the White House throughout those years, and provides a fresh perspective on the GOP and their presidents during a period that witnessed its rise from its nadir in 1964 to becoming the ascendant force in US politics.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781474475525
Publisher:	Edinburgh University Press
Publication date:	05/21/2021
Series:	New Perspectives on the American Presidency
Pages:	336
Product dimensions:	6.14(w) x 9.21(h) x (d)

About the Author

Mark McLay is Lecturer in American History at the University of Glasgow. He contributed to Constructing Presidential Legacy (Edinburgh UniversityPress, 2018) and published articles in Journal of Political History and Historical Journal.

Table of Contents

Introduction

1. A Familiar Trap: the ‘Party of Privilege’ and the War on Poverty, 1964
2. A Path to Relevance: the Republican Crusade Against the War on Poverty, 1965–1966
3. Order or Justice? Republicans and the ‘Urban Crisis’, 1965–1967
4. The Choice and the Echo: Poverty Politics and the 1968 Campaign
5. The Crossroad: Nixon’s Early Years, 1969–70
6. The Conservative Turn: Nixon, Ford, and the Beginning of the End, 1971–1976
7. The End? Poverty Politics and the ‘Reagan Revolution’, 1977–1981

Epilogue: Poverty Won? Republicans and Poverty, 1982–2018

Bibliography

Editorial Reviews

In this sprightly and vigorous book, the ‘War on Poverty’ emerges as a productive battleground for the Republican Party, during its long road back from the Goldwater debacle of 1964.

Gareth Davies