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

Reconsidering the failure of Lyndon B. Johnson's War on Poverty and the crucial role played by the GOP



This book provides a new perspective on the American Presidency through the lens of the ascendant Republican Party and its evolving challenge to Lyndon B. Johnson's 'War on Poverty' (1964-1981). A core element of Johnson's 'Great Society' vision, the War on Poverty began as a series of experimental antipoverty initiatives that were imbued with the long-term aim of vastly reducing American poverty. The antipoverty effort, however, failed to achieve widespread political backing during the 1960s and 1970s, before being symbolically ended by Ronald Reagan's social welfare cuts in 1981.



Previously ignored in War on Poverty scholarship, Republican politicians and presidents consistently shaped how the 'war' was fought, before President Reagan took the lead in curtailing the effort in 1981. Mark McLay reconsiders why Johnson's War on Poverty failed politically when other central tenets of his 'Great Society' vision have endured. Drawing on original archives of Republican politicians across the United States, he 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.



Mark McLay is lecturer in American History at the University of Glasgow in Scotland, UK. His work has appeared in the Historical Journal and the Journal of Policy History and . he is co-host and co-producer of the popular American History Too! podcast (Recorded History podcast network).

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