The Liberal Hour

May 5, 2008
Mackenzie and Weisbrot (Maximum Danger
), professors of government and history respectively at Colby College, provide an insightful and well-argued analysis of the 1960s' social, economic and policy dynamics that opened both the public and the government to great and necessary social legislation. The authors argue that the postwar movement of political power from the cities to the suburbs, the decline of conservative Southern Democrats' power in the party and the confident climate of prosperity facilitated the greatest and most far-reaching federal legislation since the New Deal. Unlike many historians of this period, Weisbrot and Mackenzie, in addition to telling of key civil rights legislation and Lyndon Johnson's War on Poverty, also give due and detailed diligence to environmental legislation, such as the Clean Air Act and the Wilderness Act, which defined strict rules to ensure federally owned wilderness largely remained wilderness. Throughout, the authors reveal how prosperity and a rare window of real opportunity with Democrats in power on both ends of Pennsylvania Avenue fueled domestic reform.

June 1, 2008
From 1963 to 1966, liberalism reigned in the United States, and during this brief time a breathtaking number of laws were passed, creating the enduring legacy of the 1960s, say Mackenzie (government, Colby Coll.; "The Politics of Presidential Appointments") and Weisbrot (history, Colby Coll.; "Maximum Danger: Kennedy, the Missiles, and the Crisis of American Confidence"). Their informed political history reveals how President Kennedy, a liberal work in progress, and President Johnson, "the most skilled and ingenious legislative leader, perhaps of all time," supported by the 89th and 90th Congresses and by the liberal Warren Court, passed such monumental legislation as the Civil Rights Act, the Voting Rights Act, Medicare and Medicaid, Head Start, and new laws to protect the environment and to expand aid to higher education. The authors show that liberalism lost public support when it could not meet its overly optimistic goals of ending poverty, healing the racial divide, and, most significantly, financing and winning the Vietnam War. By 1966, liberalism had run its course; the conservative movement gradually emerged to fill the void. This book provides a balance to the many accounts that view the 1960s as most noted for the counterculture, antiwar protestors, and sex, drugs, and rock'n'roll. Strongly recommended for larger public and all academic collections.Karl Helicher, Upper Merion Twp. Lib., King of Prussia, PA

Copyright 2008 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

July 1, 2008
Depending upon ones perspective, the 1960s were an era of racial progress, sexual liberation, and environmentalist awakening, or they were characterized by wretched excess and self-indulgent, irresponsible behavior. Mackenzie and Weisbrot, both college professors, place themselves in the former camp, but with an interesting twist. Many of the examinations of this tumultuous decade stress the bottom-up pressure and energy provided by civil rights activists, feminists, and various counterculture figures. Instead, the authors strongly assert that the progressive gains were primarily the result of political leaders in Congress and the executive branch, who took advantage of a rare window of opportunity to skillfully advance their reform agenda. This liberal hour was facilitated by unprecedented prosperity and a national spirit of optimism, in which government was assumed to be the agent of positive change. Ultimately, Mackenzie and Weisbrot indicate that the natural conservatism of the electorate and the draining disillusionment of the Vietnam War closed the window, but not before our social and political landscape was transformed.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2008, American Library Association.)