President Johnson's War On Poverty: Rhetoric and History

How words waged war—and shaped the fate of a nation’s boldest social crusade.

In January 1964, in his first State of the Union address, President Lyndon Johnson announced a declaration of “unconditional war” on poverty. By the end of the year the Economic Opportunity Act became law.

War on Poverty illustrates the interweaving of rhetorical and historical forces in shaping public policy. Zarefsky suggests that an important problem lay in its discourse. He assumes that language plays a centra...