The Era of Reform New Frontiers and Great Societies

1
The Era of Reform New Frontiers and Great
Societies

• History 17B
• Lecture 18

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Progressive and New Deal Traditions

• Progressivism has served as the basis for all
  subsequent American reform movements.
• Goal save capitalism from its own excesses.
• A positive role for government
• Moderate reform
• New executive agencies

3
Obstacles to Reform

• American reform comes in waves.
• People are exhausted and disillusioned after
  wars.
• Americans want a return to normalcy.
• After WWII, Americans seek to enjoy post-war
  prosperity.

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Calls for reform continue

• but few are listening.

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Trumans Fair Deal

• Government should provide full employment
• Subsidize housing
• National health insurance
• Federal aid to education.
• Civil Rights legislation
• Integrated the military.
• Do Nothing 80th Congress

6
Dwight Eisenhower

• Americans sought a more low-key President in
  1950s.
• A bumbling figurehead or a commander behind the
  scenes?
• Hidden-Hand Presidency
• Subordinates take the heat while he stays above
  the fray.

7
Modern Republicanism

• Ike was a pragmatic, moderate Republican
• Filled his Administration with business
  executives.
• Government had a limited role.
• Increases in Social Security and unemployment
  insurance.
• Construction of Federal highways.

8
The Other America

• 25 of Americans were poor
• Vast majority of senior citizens lived in poverty
• Racism and discrimination

9
Getting the Country Moving Again

• Expansive years of the 1950s were seedbed for
  major reform in 1960s.
• Minorities and poor wanted to participate in U.S.
  economic prosperity.
• Prosperous America felt generous enough to let
  them.
• Americans wondered if the country could do more

10
John F. Kennedy

• JFK combined a coherent vision of social change
  with political pragmatism.
• His youth embodied the activist role of a
  President.
• A darker side to JFK that we now know.
• But while alive, he represented the promise of
  the 1960s as an era of reform.

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The New Frontier

• No radical intentions.
• Tame the excesses of capitalism, not overthrow
  it.
• JFK reformers pragmatists willing to compromise.
• New Frontier promises end racial
  discrimination, federal aid to education, medical
  care for the elderly, increase in minimum wage,
  government action to halt 1960-61 recession.

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Nation Building

• Promote reform both at home and abroad through
  American values and capitalism
• Also fight the Cold War
• Strengthen Third World through liberal-economic
  efforts.
• Peace Corps
• teachers, technicians, agricultural advisors
• Alliance for Progress
• 20 billion and technical assistance

13
Counter-Insurgency

• Training of native police and armed forces.
• Green Berets ferret out communist rebels.

14
Accomplishments and Setbacks

• Executive Orders
• Food distribution to needy families
• Peace Corps
• Committees on equal employment and the status of
  women
• Collective bargaining in the federal service
• Public works acceleration
• Equal opportunity in housing
• Most New Frontier legislation bottled-up in
  Congress
• His death assures passage.

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Lyndon Baines Johnson

• A crude but passionate man.

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A Master in Persuasion

• Not willing to compromise for half a loaf.
• Legislative accomplishments
• Health care
• Poverty legislation
• Federal aid to schools and arts
• Domestic spending on freeways and roads
• Civil Rights (greatest achievement)

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War on Poverty

• Economic Opportunity Act (1964)
• Job training in Job Corps
• Loans to rural families and urban small
  businesses
• VISTA (Volunteers for Service to America) helped
  the poorest in America
• Over 1 billion for EOA

19
The Great Society

• LBJ sought to extend the New Deal
• Job Corps and training programs
• Medicare for the aged
• Medicaid to the poor
• Aid to education and Head Start
• Federal dollars for cities, mass transit, and
  housing.
• Environmental safety legislation
• Mental health facilities.

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Critics of Reform

• Critics on the Right
• Government intrusion and centralization
• Critics on the Left
• Not really attacking roots of the problems
  (racism, class discrimination, maldistribution of
  wealth)
• Also very expensive!

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Impact and Legacy

• In 1960, 1 in 3 Americans were poor.
• In 1973, 1 in 10 Americans were poor.
• Great Society was the high water mark of activist
  government.
• We now expect government to regulate
  environmental safety or industrial pollution.
• All Americans benefited (not just the poor).

22
Limits of Liberal Reform

• Capitalism accepted as a positive system.
• Provide fair opportunities so people can succeed
  on their own.
• Great Society not a cure-all but sold as one.
• Vietnam War shatters Liberal consensus.