Book contents
- How Government Built America
- How Government Built America
- Copyright page
- Dedication
- Contents
- Preface
- 1 Introduction
- 2 The Founders’ America
- 3 Abraham Lincoln’s America
- 4 Ida Tarbell’s America
- 5 Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s America
- 6 Dwight Eisenhower’s America
- 7 Rachel Carson’s America
- 8 John Lewis’s America
- 9 Alfred Kahn’s America
- 10 Ronald Reagan’s America
- 11 Mitch McConnell’s America
- 12 Donald Trump’s America
- 13 Anthony Fauci’s America
- 14 Joe Biden’s America
- 15 Conclusion
- Notes
- Index
7 - Rachel Carson’s America
Saving the Environment
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 08 May 2024
- How Government Built America
- How Government Built America
- Copyright page
- Dedication
- Contents
- Preface
- 1 Introduction
- 2 The Founders’ America
- 3 Abraham Lincoln’s America
- 4 Ida Tarbell’s America
- 5 Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s America
- 6 Dwight Eisenhower’s America
- 7 Rachel Carson’s America
- 8 John Lewis’s America
- 9 Alfred Kahn’s America
- 10 Ronald Reagan’s America
- 11 Mitch McConnell’s America
- 12 Donald Trump’s America
- 13 Anthony Fauci’s America
- 14 Joe Biden’s America
- 15 Conclusion
- Notes
- Index
Summary
The anxieties of the 1950s intensified as the Cold War heated up. JFK ’s election promised a New Frontier, and then his assassination extinguished that flame. On the one hand, the civil rights, Chicano (El Movimiento), women’s, student democracy, labor union, environmental, and public interest movements of the 1960s promoted a robust government response in which Congress passed hundreds of new laws to address the concerns raised by the movements. LBJ’s Great Society also included an array of social program that addressed the extraordinary level of poverty in the country. On the other hand, the Vietnam War significantly dampened the hopes for a Great Society as tensions arose between those for and against our continued presence in Vietnam, weakened trust in government. The political movements added to this lack of trust when they supported legal procedures to make sure that government did its job. As faith in government receded, and the reaction to the extraordinary expansion of government intensified, the table was set for a new allegiance to a market economy.
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- Information
- How Government Built America , pp. 79 - 93Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2024