Launching the War on Poverty: An Oral History (review)

Michael L. Gillette’s book is praiseworthy as a general work of history, spotlighting the now hazy efforts of idealistic “poverty warriors” of the 1960s. It is also commendable for its tight oral history editing and for its effective editing and selection of transcripts. Gillette’s fifteen years as director of the Lyndon Baines Johnson Library’s Oral History Program makes him ideal to craft this interesting and informative volume.

Forty-nine former senior and middle managers of the Office of Economic Opportunity were interviewed in 1969–70 and in the mid-1980s. This edition in particular adds depth through the Johnson White House telephone conversations, weaving in excerpts from newly released LBJ phone calls from 1963–67 with the oral histories. Johnson can be petty—LBJ was not given to nuance—but astonishes with his mastery of the legislative process. Launchingbalances staff interviews with presidential phone calls, creating a blended story that is told better than either could alone while allowing the book to show how programs such as Head Start, Job Corps, College Work-Study, Volunteers in Service to America (VISTA), and Legal Services Corporation still remain viable.

Planners of the War on Poverty, and those called upon to implement programs, relate their experiences, assumptions, and political and cultural biases. The author takes us to late-night meetings where organizers drank pots of coffee and digested plates full of ideas. We learn how policymakers crafted landmark bills, what early controversies ensued, and how the various agencies finally became realities (22–28). Gillette’s book lacks interviews with people at the local level, such as VISTA volunteers and Job Corps alumni, so Launchingis essentially “top down.” It works just the same.

The forty-seven men and two women had little regret for ushering the nation through a bold social experiment, though they recognized these programs were costing much more money than predicted. Number crunchers figured out it cost more to train a Job Corpsman each year than for a student to attend Harvard for a year. “We used to argue which product was better,” an interviewee joked (232).

The launching of the War on Poverty is the clear focus of this work. Yet telling a full story demands more coverage be given to the opposition’s role and strategy. For instance, an analysis of “The Fight in the House” (152–53) warrants only four paragraphs, most process-based, while readers may desire more insights into how ideology and practicality factored in. Aside from race, what other reasons did legislators use as arguments against these bills? Were not how interviewees learned some things “the hard way” part of these themes? How about high expense with relatively small dividend? Or a new societal dependency that even “poverty warriors” recognized did arise?

Sorting and mixing so many oral histories and phone excerpts, Gillette quite ably shows he was able to rise to the challenge. “To encourage candor, each narrator was given an opportunity to review and edit the transcript and seal the interview for a period of time. The narrator’s embellishments have been primarily stylistic rather than substantive; and despite the potential for conflicting memories and varying perspectives, the degree of consensus among interviewees is remarkable. The interviews have been excerpted and arranged topically in order to tell the story of the creation of the poverty program while highlighting corroborative and divergent recollections” (xiv). Readers gain accessibility to diverse and bold retrospective analysis, both personal and professional. Gillette’s skill using quotes while maintaining momentum, for example, is evident with Rep. Phil M. Landrum’s role, a conservative Democrat from Georgia who opposed much progressive social legislation and was not loved by big labor. But somehow he led pro-Office of Equal Opportunity forces. Gillette melds transcripts from an LBJ aide with slices of telephone conversations involving the president. The result is a clear depiction of the intricacies in enactment of poverty legislation (146–49...