The Best of Intentions: The Triumphs and Failures of the Great Society Under Kennedy, Johnson, and Nixon Book

Irwin Unger, a Pulitzer Prize-winning historian, suggests in The Best of Intentions that you think of the Great Society the next time you fasten a seat belt, visit a national park, or switch on "All Things Considered." Unger notes that while the sweeping social reforms begun under the Kennedy administration have been seen primarily as benefiting the poor---as the recent debates on welfare have made clear---much of the so-called Great Society initiative was in fact intended for the advantage of the middle class. Under the presidencies of Kennedy, Johnson, and Nixon, he writes, the talents of government were put to solving social problems and to establishing what Johnson called "a creative federalism between the National Capital and the leaders of local communities." These programs reflected a post-scarcity sensibility, the idea that within the vast riches of America lay the possibility that each citizen could have an equitable share, and Unger points to some unlikely heroes in the campaign to make them a reality---among them the since-discredited legislator Wilbur Mills, who shepherded Medicare through Congress, and Nixon himself, who took time during Watergate to sponsor a series of far-reaching environmental and social initiatives. At a time when the last vestiges of Great Society federalism are under siege in Washington, this well-written book is of special interest.Read More