Book Review: The Republican Party and the War on Poverty: 1964-1981 by Mark McLay
In The Republican Party and the War on Poverty, Mark McLay analyses how the Grand Old Party (GOP) responded to Lyndon B. Johnson’s War on Poverty, and the issue of poverty more broadly, between 1964 and 1981. He considers what Republican opposition to anti-poverty measures reveals about the GOP and wider US politics during this period. In chronological chapters, McLay examines continuity and change in Republican approaches to poverty. He shows persuasively how Republican reactions to the War on Poverty shaped the GOP’s enduring conservative, anti-statist, and racialised responses to poverty, alongside how anti-poverty measures were understood by the wider public, for years and decades to come.
Tim Galsworthy on the 2021 BAAS Peter Parish Award
In March 2021, I was fortunate enough to be the recipient of a Postgraduate Research Assistance Award from BAAS. Receiving this award, especially one named after the great Peter Parish, was humbling. This award was also invaluable for my doctoral project. After initially considering the possibility of a visit to the United States, I quickly decided, due to the ongoing pandemic, that the award’s funds would be better used supporting remote research. I was interested in using BAAS funds to access important archival materials from the Library of Congress. My PhD analyses the relationship between American Civil War memory and the Republican Party during the 1960s. The Library holds an array of useful collections, but I was particularly interested in materials concerning leading Black Republicans – an important group here was voices and perspectives I had not yet adequately investigated. A number of scholars, notably Leah Wright Rigueur and Joshua […]