SPECIAL TOPICS: LYNDON JOHNSON, SPRING 2002
This course is an intensive investigation of the legacy of Lyndon Johnson. He was born in Texas, where his father had been a Populist. LBJ served as director of the National Youth Administration during the New Deal, was elected to the House of Representatives as a New Deal Democrat, and served during World War II. In time he won election to the Senate, where he became Majority Leader. In 1960 he was John Kennedy's vice presidential running mate, and in 1961 became vice president. After the assassination of JFK in November 1963, LBJ succeeded to the presidency. He won election as president in 1964. This course will examine is role in history. LBJ is remembered for the Civil Rights Act of 1964, the Voting Rights Act of 1965, Medicare and Medicaid, the Elementary and Secondary Education Act, the War on Poverty, the Great Society, and efforts to provide federal aid to collegiate education, urban mass transit, and environmental and consumer protection. His domestic record is staggering. But he inherited the war in Vietnam, and made the fateful decision to escalate the war by introducing half a million ground troops. But by 1968 the war was stalemated, and America seemed to be losing. The "loss" of the war in Vietnam overshadowed all of Johnson's domestic achievements.
This course will look at several questions. What were LBJ's successes and accomplishments? What were his mistakes and failures? Why did he make the mistakes that he made? Were his shortcomings personal flaws, or did his mistakes reflect larger, structural problems and issues? Was LBJ trapped, or did he have other options and could he have made other choices? Was Cold War liberalism inherently flawed, limited or contradictory? Was LBJ's problem that he "didn’t go far enough" in some respect, or that he tried to go "too far?" Why is he so maligned? Does he deserve the tarnished reputation that he has been given?
There will be a few exams, and students will complete a research paper (20-30 pages in length) on some aspect of LBJ's presidency and legacy. The paper will utilize primary documents and sources. Possible examples of paper topics will be some aspect of the Vietnam War, or the War on Poverty and domestic programs (ESEA, Head Start, Medicare, Medicaid, public assistance, housing). In your paper, you will evaluate how successful/unsuccessful, effective or ineffective the policy was, or the program has been.
The required readings are:
Bruce Schulman, LBJ and American Liberalism
Larry Berman, Lyndon Johnson's War
John Morton Blum, Years of Discord: American Politics and Society
Jill Quadagno, The Color of Welfare