Great Society

A New History

De: Amity Shlaes

Narrado por: Terence Aselford

The New York Times bestselling author of The Forgotten Man and Coolidge offers a stunning revision of our last great period of idealism, the 1960s, with burning relevance for our contemporary challenges.

""Great Society is accurate history that reads like a novel, covering the high hopes and catastrophic missteps of our well-meaning leaders."" —Alan Greenspan

Today, a battle rages in our country. Many Americans are attracted to socialism and economic redistribution while opponents of those ideas argue for purer capitalism. In the 1960s, Americans sought the same goals many seek now: an end to poverty, higher standards of living for the middle class, a better environment and more access to health care and education. Then, too, we debated socialism and capitalism, public sector reform versus private sector advancement. Time and again, whether under John F. Kennedy, Lyndon Johnson, or Richard Nixon, the country chose the public sector. Yet the targets of our idealism proved elusive. What’s more, Johnson’s and Nixon’s programs shackled millions of families in permanent government dependence. Ironically, Shlaes argues, the costs of entitlement commitments made a half century ago preclude the very reforms that Americans will need in coming decades.

In Great Society, Shlaes offers a powerful companion to her legendary history of the 1930s, The Forgotten Man, and shows that in fact there was scant difference between two presidents we consider opposites: Johnson and Nixon. Just as technocratic military planning by “the Best and the Brightest” made failure in Vietnam inevitable, so planning by a team of the domestic best and brightest guaranteed fiasco at home. At once history and biography, Great Society sketches moving portraits of the characters in this transformative period, from U.S. Presidents to the visionary UAW leader Walter Reuther, the founders of Intel, and Federal Reserve chairmen William McChesney Martin and Arthur Burns. Great Society casts new light on other figures too, from Ronald Reagan, then governor of California, to the socialist Michael Harrington and the protest movement leader Tom Hayden. Drawing on her classic economic expertise and deep historical knowledge, Shlaes upends the traditional narrative of the era, providing a damning indictment of the consequences of thoughtless idealism with striking relevance for today. Great Society captures a dramatic contest with lessons both dark and bright for our own time.

Supplemental enhancement PDF accompanies the audiobook.

An accurate history of Johnson's "Great Society"!

Amity writes a thorough history of the political scene that resulted in the "Great Society" policies, many of which are significant even to this day!

you can handle the truth

excellent treaty on the origins of federal overreach in the USA. the tentacles of this disastrous set of policies haunt us still today

A great history of the sixties

This incredibly well researched book is like thousands of facts strung together to make a history - but in a very readable way. I highly recommend it.

Essential reading!!

This book should be essential reading for schools. It begins in the 1950’s where her previous book, “The Forgotten Man” left off and goes to the early 1970’s. Hopefully there is a 3rd book continuing from there.

This fills in the blanks on so many historical questions I’ve had and puts context on why so many decisions were made. The overall presentation and recording were excellent as well. I highly recommend this book.

Origins of the Race and Poverty Hustle

Great book in the Amity Shlaes series. This book shed light on the High Modernist Planning behind the origins of woke. How to turn happy, united citizens of an affluent society into fractured, angry, envious mobs. It was Washington DC created to cynically divide the nation for political positioning by both parties. This book explains how the poverty and race hustle was the work of slimy populist politicians (LBJ and Nixon), closet Socialists (Harrington and G. Romney), Marxists (Reuther and Alinski), Corporate Cronies, War Mongers, and Ethno Nationalists Activists - fully financed by Washington. The government was paying self-professed satanic grievance grinders like Saul Alinski. Nixon basically goes socialist so he could win re-election by spiking economy without actually fixing any fundamental issues.

This book further sheds light on the scammers, useful idiots, and the tactics. Even origins with New Deal left wingers that were fascinated by Soviet Super Fascist power. Amazing but sad, that 60 years later, the hustle and "planning" continues and American cities like St Louis and Detroit are enduring cautionary tales.