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LBJ's Neglected Legacy: How Lyndon Johnson Reshaped Domestic Policy and Government. Edited by Robert H. Wilson, Norman J. Glickman, and Laurence E. Lynn Jr. (Austin: University of Texas Press, 2015. Pp. xii. 481. Paper, $29.95, ISBN 978-1-4773-0253-8; cloth, $85.00, ISBN 978-14773-0054-1.)
This volume collects thirteen articles from social scientists, policy academics, and historians examining Great Society civil rights, education, social welfare, and urban policy and the mechanics of the Lyndon B. Johnson administration's budgeting and evaluation practices. The chapters are bookended by introductory and concluding essays from editors Robert H. Wilson, Norman J. Glickman, and Laurence E. Lynn Jr., who aim to redirect attention to the impacts of Johnson administration domestic policy, which, contributor Robert Dallek argues, have been overshadowed by sour memories of the war in Vietnam.
While there has been no dearth of attention to Great Society critique in the years since Johnson left office (and the pile of books has only grown during the current cycle of fiftieth anniversaries), here the editors promise a specific, potentially fertile inquiry. Moving beyond evaluation of the programmaticsuccesses and shortcomings of Johnson-era initiatives, they undertake to consider the extent to which governance frameworks created during the Johnson years have shaped subsequent national domestic policy choices.
In this worthwhile effort, LBJ's Neglected Legacy: How Lyndon Johnson Reshaped Domestic Policy and Government falls short. Much of each chapter is taken up in reviewing policy approaches before the Johnson administration and in rehearsing the particulars of Great Society policy breakthroughs-all well-trodden ground. Contributors consider factors...