The Republican Party and the War on Poverty

Abstract

Reassesses how presidents from Lyndon Johnson to Ronald Reagan dealt with the politics of the War on Poverty Traces the evolution of the modern Republican party through its approach to poverty Examines the roots of Republican opposition to antipoverty legislation, giving an insight into contemporary debates over public policy Grounded in substantial archival research undertaken across the United States, including the presidential libraries of Lyndon B. Johnson, Richard M. Nixon, Gerald R. Ford, and Ronald W. Reagan Draws on the public and private papers of leading Republicans from different geographical regions and ideological factions Uses political science tools such as public and private polling data, poverty and crime statistics, demographic studies, election analyses, and the presidential tapes of Lyndon Johnson and Richard Nixon Engages with and contributes to history and political science, supplemented by insights from sociological research on antipoverty programmes Mark Mclay examines the part the Republican Party played in shaping and eventually curtailing President Johnson’s War on Poverty. Republican politicians and presidents consistently influenced how the ‘war’ was fought, before President Reagan symbolically ended the effort with his social welfare cuts in 1981. Drawing on original archives of Republican politicians across the United States, the author sheds light on the important dynamic that existed between the Republican Party, Congress and the White House throughout those years, and provides a fresh perspective on the Republican Party and their presidents during a period that witnessed its rise from its nadir in 1964 to becoming the ascendant force in US politics.