THE FIERCE URGENCY OF NOW Lyndon Johnson, Congress, and the Battle for the Great Society

The Civil Rights Act, the Voting Rights Act, Medicare, Medicaid, the National Endowments for the Arts and the Humanities, consumer and environmental protection acts—these and many other landmark bills all passed through Congress during the first years (1963-1966) of Lyndon Johnson’s presidency. However, listening as Andrew Garman narrates in a calm and reasoned tone, one realizes that it would be a mistake to think that the pillars of Johnson’s liberal “Great Society” legislation sailed through Congress without a fight. With clarity and a just a hint incredulity, Garman recounts how Dixiecrats, hard-line conservatives, and old-line New Dealers were able to come together for the briefest of times and create the political and social landscapes of the nation we live in today. B.P. © AudioFile 2015, Portland, Maine [Published: JULY 2015]