Economics, Bureaucracy, and Race: How Keynesians Misguided the War on Poverty (Power, Conflict, & Democracy: American Politics into the 21st Century) Book

Even though our government has had a long history in dealing with poverty, it has failed to produce consistent or coherent programs to eliminate poverty or alleviate its consequences, Judith Russell charges in this hardhitting analysis of the war on poverty. The book focuses on the genesis of the Economic Opportunity Act, conceived in 1963 and enacted in 1964, which constituted the core of President Kennedy and President Johnson's antipoverty crusade. Russell asserts that, the war on poverty could have been an inclusive program of government-sponsored jobs, job training, and job placement in conjunction with the private sector, but it was not. To support her thesis, she draws upon a treasure trove of archival sources, including newspapers and legal journals, party platforms, public opinion surveys, an interview and ten-year correspondence with former Secretary of Labor W. Willard Wirtz, and the oral histories and other documents found in the Kennedy and Johnson Presidential Libraries.Read More