6. Protest, Opposition and Legacy

About this Lecture

Lecture

In this module, we provide an overall summary of the presidency of Lyndon Johnson, focusing in particular on: (i) the overall arc of Johnson’s presidency, from early successes to later challenges; (ii) the events of 1968, which offer a useful summary of the issues facing Johnson, e.g. the Tet Offensive and the feeling that the Vietnam War was becoming “mired in stalemate”, the assassination of Martin Luther King in April and of Robert Kennedy in June, etc., and (iii) the lasting impact of Johnson’s reforms – both positive and negative.

Course

In this course, Dr Thomas Tunstall Allcock (University of Manchester) explores the presidency of Lyndon B. Johnson (1963-69). The first module provides an introduction to Johnson himself, his personality and policies in comparison with the presidents that preceded and followed him – Kennedy and Nixon. In the second module, we think about four important contexts for Johnson’s presidency – three domestic, one international – before turning in the third module to consider the set of domestic reforms known as Johnson’s Great Society. In the fourth module, we consider Johnson’s record on civil rights, before turning in the fifth module to think about the importance of the Vietnam War in assessments of Johnson’s presidency. Finally, in the sixth module, we provide an overview of Johnson’s presidency, thinking about the overall arc of his administration – from early successes to later challenges – his major achievements, his failures, and his longer-term legacy.

Lecturer

Dr Tom Tunstall Allcock is a lecturer in American history at the University of Manchester. His research focuses on U.S. foreign policy during the Cold War, with particular interests in U.S.-Latin American relations, presidential history and diplomacy, and the cultural history of the Cold War.