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A Tale of Two Communities: Fighting Poverty in the Great Society (1964–68)

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  • Evelyn L. Forget

Abstract

The Office of Economic Opportunity was established, under the leadership of Sargent Shriver, to fight President Johnson's War on Poverty as part of the Great Society program. Between 1964 and 1968, two intellectual communities vied for supremacy within that office. In the early years, a group of intellectual radicals drew inspiration from social psychology and gave their support to the controversial community action programs that drew criticism from the Senate, Congress, local governments, and Democratic Party insiders. Over time, a second community, built upon the values and insights associated with the Office of Research, Plans, Programs, Evaluation, brought the evaluation perspective of RAND to government spending and gradually began to dominate. This essay examines the internal and external pressures of the period and uses the insights of Randall Collins, Michael Farrell, and J. B. Morrell and G. L. Geison to explain why one intellectual community flourished while the other declined.

Suggested Citation

  • Evelyn L. Forget, 2011. "A Tale of Two Communities: Fighting Poverty in the Great Society (1964–68)," History of Political Economy, Duke University Press, vol. 43(1), pages 199-223, Spring.
    • Handle: RePEc:hop:hopeec:v:43:y:2011:i:1:p:199-223
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    Cited by:

    1. Cléo Chassonnery-Zaïgouche, 2015. "Crossing Boundaries, Displacing Previous Knowledge and Claiming Superiority: Is the Economics of Discrimination a Conquest of Economics Imperialism?," STOREPapers 5_2015, Associazione Italiana per la Storia dell'Economia Politica - StorEP.
    2. Bailey, Martha J. & Duquette, Nicolas J., 2014. "How Johnson Fought the War on Poverty: The Economics and Politics of Funding at the Office of Economic Opportunity," The Journal of Economic History, Cambridge University Press, vol. 74(2), pages 351-388, June.
    3. Shu Cao & Nannan Yu & Yang Wu & Zihe Wang & Jianing Mi, 2020. "The Educational Level of Rural Labor, Population Urbanization, and Sustainable Economic Growth in China," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(12), pages 1-14, June.

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