Research Catalog

Details

Description

1. viii, 342 pages, 32 unnumbered pages of plates : illustrations; 24 cm

Summary

1. Since the death of John F. Kennedy, the early hagiography has given way to a sharply critical, revisionist portrait that depicts a mediocre president whose domestic program was a dismal failure. Kennedy was a man of words, not of deeds, one critic wrote, and his achievements "were less significant than James K. Polk." But in Promises Kept, eminent historian Irving Bernstein argues that "the revisionists are dead wrong." By 1963, Kennedy had become a very effective leader and, if he had not been assassinated, there is no doubt that his whole program would have been enacted by 1965.
2. In this brilliant reassessment of the Kennedy years based on primary sources, Bernstein vividly recreates many of the major political and social confrontations of the early '60s, especially the burgeoning struggle for civil rights. He describes the 1961 Freedom Ride bus trip that headed south to defy Jim Crow (James Farmer and six other blacks were horribly beaten when the bus arrived in Birmingham) and the violent riot on the campus of Ole Miss where a young James Meredith, with the backing of Kennedy's Justice Department, the National Guard, and the U.S. Army, became the first black ever to register at that bastion of the Deep South. Bernstein also examines Kennedy's determined fight to push through education aid bills, raise the minimum wage, establish Medicare and revitalize the American economy and create full employment. Kennedy survived the early stumbles of inexperience, Bernstein concludes, to become a master of legislative politics. By November of 1963, he had forged a working relationship with a hostile Congress and made the breakthroughs that would lead to the tax cut, the Civil Rights Act, federal aid for education, and Medicare in 1964 and 1965.
3. A provocative new account of Kennedy's domestic achievements, Promises Kept is the first of a two-volume study of the social and economic reform programs of the 1960s. When complete, it will be a signal contribution to our understanding of recent American history.

Subject

1. Kennedy, John F. 1917-1963
2. Johnson, Lyndon B. 1908-1973
3. Johnson, Lyndon B. 1908-1973
4. Kennedy, John F. 1917-1963
5. Kennedy, John F., 1917-1963
6. Johnson, Lyndon Baines, 1908-1973
7. Johnson, Lyndon Baines, (1908-1973)
8. Kennedy, John Fitzgerald, (1917-1963)
9. Kennedy, John F
10. Umschulungswerkstätten für Siedler und Auswanderer Bitterfeld
11. 1961-1971
12. 15.85 history of America
13. Economic policy
14. Politics and government
15. Social policy
16. Innenpolitik
17. Reformpolitik
18. Sozialpolitik
19. Wirtschaftspolitik
20. Burgerrechten
21. Sociale wetgeving
22. Economische ontwikkeling
23. United States > Politics and government > 1961-1963
24. United States > Politics and government > 1963-1969
25. United States > Economic policy > 1961-1971
26. United States > Social policy
27. United States
28. États-Unis > Politique et gouvernement > 1961-1963
29. États-Unis > Politique et gouvernement > 1963-1969
30. États-Unis > Politique économique > 1961-1971
31. USA

Genre/Form

1. Biographie.

Contents

1. America in 1960 -- Civil rights: confrontation -- Civil rights: year of decision, 1963 -- Keynesian turn: the tax cut -- Wrestling with structural unemployment -- Updating the New Deal -- Federal aid for education -- A battle lost: Medicare -- The Peace Corps -- If men were angels.

Owning institution

1. Princeton University Library

Bibliography (note)

1. Includes bibliographical references.