Contents

PROLOGUE: THE VICE PRESIDENCY

I CARETAKER OF JOHN F. KENNEDY’S LEGACY

  1. Fifteen Days

  2. The Tax Cut

  3. The Civil Rights Act of 1964

  4. The War on Poverty

II LYNDON JOHNSON—“THE GREAT, FABULOUS 89TH CONGRESS”

  5. Prelude: The 1964 Election

  6. Medicare: The Jewel in the Crown

  7. Breakthrough in Education

  8. Selma and the Voting Rights Act

  9. Immigration: Righting the National Origins Wrong

10. The Environment: From Conservation to Pollution

11. Failure: The Repeal of Right-to-Work

III LYNDON JOHNSON—EMBATTLED, BESIEGED, UNDERMINED

12. Unhinging the State of the Union

13. Vietnam: Sliding into the Quagmire

14. Launching the Great Inflation

15. Turmoil at Home

16. Updating the Minimum Wage and Social Security

17. Lyndon Johnson, Patron of the Arts

18. Model Cities

19. The Collapse of the Johnson Presidency

IV CODA

20. Guns or Butter

      Notes

      Index