History 4321/Children’s Studies 401

The Great Society

September 28, 2005

 

I. Rights-Related Liberalism under FDR

 

            1. Constitutional Revolution (court-packing scheme, its effects, and emergence of rights-related liberalism)

 

            2. World War II (from Hirabayashi to Koremastu—deference to military)

 

3. Civil Liberties and Education (from Gobitis to Barnette: when is a precedent not a precedent?)

 

II. Cold War and American Youth

 

            1. National Security and Civil Liberties (HUAC: role of politics, role of FBI, Hollywood Ten hearings; nature of threat—Nixon and Hiss, Klaus Fuchs; response—Federal Employee Loyalty Program, Internal Security Act; loyalty oaths and purges; 1930s intellectuals and educational establishment; McCarthyism)

 

            2. Other Effects (family life—growth of social safety net; “nuclear family,” new conception of gender roles; higher education—GI Bill and democratizing higher education, science education and NDEA, Cold War competition and Title VI; public education—pledge of allegiance; the Road to Engel)

 

III. LBJ and Civil Rights

            1. Civil Rights and 1964 (Civil Rights Act: provisions—(1) outlaw racial discrimination in pub accommodations, (2) give Justice Dept. authority to file suits for school deseg in fed’l court, (3) create EEOC; role of LBJ; path through Congress)

 

            2. Follow-ups (Voting Rights Act, 24th amendment; Loving and elimination of last vestiges of segregation; growing importance of courts)

 

3. Political Ramifications (conservative critique—challenging the courts: apportionment—Wesberry v. Sanders, Reynolds v. Sims; introduction of Tuck bill and Mansfield/Dirksen bill; liberal weakness; crime—(1) Goldwater campaign, (2) Watts, (3) Miranda and White dissent; left-wing critique: Freedom Summer and MFDP, failure of LBJ attempts to compromise; previews difficulties with issue later 1960s)

 

IV. Great Society

 

            1. LBJ Ideological Agenda (personal background; role of New Deal; pragmatism, ideology, and approach to governing; origins of War on Poverty; 1964 election and changing congressional balance)

 

            2. LBJ Program (Medicare, Medicaid, and government health insurance; AFDC and origins of American welfare state; Title I and federal role in public education; tensions within LBJ coalition)