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Guns or Butter: The Presidency of Lyndon Johnson. By Irving Bernstein. (New York: Oxford University Press, 1996. x, 606 pp. $60.00, ISBN 0-19-506312-0.)
Guns or Butter is a well-researched and balanced portrayal of Lyndon B. Johnson as a president of significant legislative accomplishments and subsequent failures-a pattern foreshadowed as John F. Kennedy's ambassador of good will.
The transition to the presidency left Johnson in effect competing with Kennedy, yet carrying on the Kennedy legacy in handling Kennedy's tax cut and civil rights bills.
Irving Bernstein's narratives of Johnson's legislative accomplishments are detailed and interpretative. He notes that Johnson publicly endorsed and worked hard to get the Keynesian bill passed but probably had his doubts. Bernstein points out further in a short but convincing analysis that unique conditions in 1964 made possible a tax reduction without a simultaneous reduction in government revenue.
Similarly, in dealing with the Civil Rights Act of 1964, Bernstein notes Johnson's commitment and caretaker role, yet Johnson paid a personal price-it alienated him from his...