Faith in the ability of economic expansion to produce abundance and a more equitable, just society seemed inherently logical. For a generation that had overcome the Depression, conquered fascism, and harnessed unprecedented technology, the future was brimming with opportunity. Lyndon Johnson hoped to tap this energy for change to extend the promise of American abundance to everyone, even those marginalized by race and class in urban ghettoes and by the accident of birth in rural places like Appalachia. Although much of Johnson’s Great Society legislation was aimed at the educated middle class, with initiatives such as National Public Radio, endowments for the arts and humanities, land conservation, automobile safety, highway beautification, consumer protection, federal aid for education, and Medicare, it was the effort to eradicate poverty that reflected the era’s highest goals and deepest failures. Among the academics and policy makers who designed both the War on Poverty and the ARC, confidence in the ability of American society to build a more perfect world was deeply rooted in experience and faith.
