That shift, Davies argues, was part of a broader transformation in political values that had devastating consequences for the Democratic Party in particular and for the cause of liberalism generally.

Twenty-first-century US policymakers face a great challenge: How can federal government help more people achieve the American dream? Specifically, how can we provide greater opportunities for less-prosperous individuals, enabling them to succeed through hard work, on their merits, and take increased responsibility for their lives? Lewis D. Solomon sees this as the challenge of our time. He seeks to thread the fine public policy needle between social democratic efforts to perfect the world and those who negatively view public sector programs. Based on the premise that capitalism is not inherently unjust and defective, and American capitalism's structural features do not inexorability thwart opportunity, Building an Opportunity Society offers the possibility of more limited, carefully structured, cost-effective, empirically verified federal policies and programs. Solomon first provides the background and context of many existing domestic challenges and problems that the current and proposed federal policies and programs seek to address. He then analyses the federal safety net that keeps Americans from poverty and helps reduce income inequality. Finally, he presents a lifecycle analysis of current federal policies and programs, preventive and remedial, designed as part of the Entitlement State, but if restructured could facilitate the building of an Opportunity Society. Solomon challenges policymakers to take a fresh look at how best to achieve society's goals for all citizens.

This companion offers an overview of Lyndon B. Johnson's life, presidency, and legacy, as well as a detailed look at the central arguments and scholarly debates from his term in office. Explores the legacy of Johnson and the historical significance of his years as president Covers the full range of topics, from the social and civil rights reforms of the Great Society to the increased American involvement in Vietnam Incorporates the dramatic new evidence that has come to light through the release of around 8,000 phone conversations and meetings that Johnson secretly recorded as President

Every academic discipline has an origin story complicit with white supremacy. Racial hierarchy and colonialism structured the very foundations of most disciplines’ research and teaching paradigms. In the early twentieth century, the academy faced rising opposition and correction, evident in the intervention of scholars including W. E. B. Du Bois, Zora Neale Hurston, Carter G. Woodson, and others. By the mid-twentieth century, education itself became a center in the struggle for social justice. Scholars mounted insurgent efforts to discredit some of the most odious intellectual defenses of white supremacy in academia, but the disciplines and their keepers remained unwilling to interrogate many of the racist foundations of their fields, instead embracing a framework of racial colorblindness as their default position. This book challenges scholars and students to see race again. Examining the racial histories and colorblindness in fields as diverse as social psychology, the law, musicology, literary studies, sociology, and gender studies, Seeing Race Again documents the profoundly contradictory role of the academy in constructing, naturalizing, and reproducing racial hierarchy. It shows how colorblindness compromises the capacity of disciplines to effectively respond to the wide set of contemporary political, economic, and social crises marking public life today.

Phelps investigates the on-the-ground implementation of President Lyndon Johnson's War on Poverty during the 1960s and 1970s and argues that the fluid interaction between federal policies, urban politics, and grassroots activists created a significant site of conflict over the meaning of American democracy.

The main aim of this book is to develop and implement an innovative tool: exchange-entitlement mapping, or E-mapping for short. This tool enables us to look at the economic and social opportunities to develop human capabilities for different groups of individuals, depending on their group identity such as age, ethnicity or gender.

A sweeping and path-breaking history of the post–World War II decades, during which an activist federal government guided the country toward the first real flowering of the American Dream. In The Gifted Generation, historian David Goldfield examines the generation immediately after World War II and argues that the federal government was instrumental in the great economic, social, and environmental progress of the era. Following the sacrifices of the Greatest Generation, the returning vets and their children took the unprecedented economic growth and federal activism to new heights. This generation was led by presidents who believed in the commonwealth ideal: the belief that federal legislation, by encouraging individual opportunity, would result in the betterment of the entire nation. In the years after the war, these presidents created an outpouring of federal legislation that changed how and where people lived, their access to higher education, and their stewardship of the environment. They also spearheaded historic efforts to level the playing field for minorities, women and immigrants. But this dynamic did not last, and Goldfield shows how the shrinking of the federal government shut subsequent generations off from those gifts. David Goldfield brings this unprecedented surge in American legislative and cultural history to life as he explores the presidencies of Harry S. Truman, Dwight D. Eisenhower, and Lyndon Baines Johnson. He brilliantly shows how the nation's leaders persevered to create the conditions for the most gifted generation in U.S. history.