Study Guide on Gillon, Ch 8 p. 158-172

• How was Johnson’s background different from Kennedy’s?
• How did he achieve political power in the 1940s and 1950s?
• Describe his personality and habits, if you dare.
• How did Johnson feel about Kennedy’s proposed reforms?
• What was the philosophy behind the “War on Poverty,” and what programs and initiatives did it entail?
• Evaluate the success of the War on Poverty (and the Great Society as a whole).
• Evaluate public support for the initiatives.
• What does Gillon consider to be the “ultimate irony of the war on poverty”?

Note: remember that Johnson’s support for the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965 are also considered part of his Great Society program.

• What were the two camps of conservatives, and how did their philosophies contradict each other?
• What made the two camps converge and patch over their differences?
• What did the New Right have in common with the New Left?
• What distinguished the New Right from the New Left?
• Describe the John Birch Society.
• Where was the New Right’s constituency emerging most strongly? Why?
• What was the purpose and philosophy of the Young Americans for Freedom?

• What was the strategy of the Goldwater-wing of the Republican party for 1964?
• Note the extent of LBJ’s victory in that election
• Why does Gillon say that “Goldwater wond the debate in the long run”?What was happening with the partisan loyalties of the South?
• Why was the Immigration Act of 1965 a significant change in immigration policy? How did it “profoundly affect American life in the decades ahead”?
• Note the debate over evaluating the Great Society – positive and negative evaluations of programs such as Medicare/Medicaid, and school funding