Johnson's Great Society example essay topic

310 words
Lyndon B. Johnson's Great Society. Johnson initiated numerous economic programs which would collectively be identified as the "Great Society". The nation was in an economic decline and the Vietnam War toiled on the minds of the citizens. Johnson's intent in creating the Great Society was to lessen poverty by creating new jobs and strengthening areas of the economy which were weak. His war on poverty would, for all appearances, be successful. It would be a short-lived success, however.

The Great Society would soon be revealed as taking a heavy toll on American economics Perhaps no other speech in political history has hit upon as many delicate subjects as Lyndon B. Johnson's 'Great Society. ' Considered the one dissertation to cure all the country's ills at once, the President sought to implement broad and widely sweeping changes with regard to education, environmental degradation, immigration and health care. Indeed, it can readily be argued that these concerns were at the forefront of the nation's mind; however, the manner by which Johnson went about originating these drastic modifications in social and political policy were delivered quite abruptly and without a great deal of follow-through. Some of the myriad acts put into place by this speech include the Civil Rights Act, food stamp legislation, the Economic Opportunity Act, programs for mass transportation, Medicare and Medicaid, the Elementary and Secondary Education Act, the Higher Education Act, and the Public Works and Economic Development Act. Historians who have studied the President's speech contend that while it was comprised of eloquence and forthrightness, it proved to be but a Band-Aid upon the problems it had sought to resolve. The writer evaluates Johnson's speech as it relates to rhetoric, content, consistency, flow, as well as the impact it has had upon the nation some thirty years later.

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lists 10 sources. Johnson's ideal of a great society, as was defined in one of his greatest speeches. Johnson was a man who held many regrets, as Goodwin so eloquently illustrated, and to a large degree his dream may well have been a failure. This may have well had something to do with the fact that the American people never saw him as much more than Kennedy's replacement and Johnson could never fill the shoes of the revered president. No additional sources cited.