Today's question:
Was the Great Society successful?
Read Johnson's speech and watch the following video.
Great Society
Great Society Speech, Lyndon B. Johnson, 1964 (Modified)
I have come today from the turmoil of your Capital to the tranquility (peace) of
your campus to speak about the future of your country. . .
The Great Society rests on abundance and liberty for all. It demands an end to
poverty and racial injustice, to which we are totally committed in our time. But
that is just the beginning. . .
It is harder and harder to live the good life in American cities today. There is not
enough housing for our people or transportation for our traffic. . . . Our society will
never be great until our cities are great. . .
A second place where we begin to build the Great Society is in our countryside.
We have always prided ourselves on being not only America the strong and
America the free, but America the beautiful. Today that beauty is in danger. The
water we drink, the food we eat, the very air that we breathe, are threatened with
pollution. Our parks are overcrowded, our seashores overburdened. Green fields
and dense forests are disappearing. . .
A third place to build the Great Society is in the classrooms of America. There
your children's lives will be shaped. Our society will not be great until every
young mind is set free to scan the farthest reaches of thought and imagination.
We are still far from that goal. . . Poverty must not be a bar to learning, and
learning must offer an escape from poverty. . .
For better or for worse, your generation has been appointed by history to deal
with those problems and to lead America toward a new age. You have the
chance never before afforded to any people in any age. You can help build a
society where the demands of morality, and the needs of the spirit, can be
realized in the life of the Nation.
So, will you join in the battle to give every citizen the full equality which God
enjoins and the law requires, whatever his belief, or race, or the color of his skin?
Will you join in the battle to give every citizen an escape from the crushing weight
of poverty?
Will you join in the battle to build the Great Society, to prove that our material
progress is only the foundation on which we will build a richer life of mind and
spirit?
Source: The speech above was delivered by President Johnson as a
commencement (graduation) speech at the University of Michigan on May 22,1964 Read the following articles. Using the techniques from "Read like a historian", examine each document. They contain opposing views on the success and/or failure of Johnson's Great Society.
After collecting information in a graphic organizer you will be asked to revisit the questions and determine which author you find the most compelling. Also, how do these documents relate to today's society?
Reflection questions to be answered following completion of organizer.
What is Califano’s main argument? What is Sowell’s main
argument?
What evidence does each use to support his claim?
Who do you find more convincing? Why?
How are some of these arguments being played out in today’s
debates over economic recovery?
