Julian Zelizer: “The Fierce Urgency of Now”

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    Guests: Julian Zelizer

    Between 1963 and 1966, President Lyndon Johnson, with huge majorities in his Democratic Party in Congress, transformed the country with the passage of the Civil Rights and Voting Rights Acts. Medicare and Medicaid were passed as well as a number of poverty programs, environmental and consumer protections acts and major investments in public transportation. Johnson called these achievement the Great Society. Our guest, Princeton University professor JULIAN ZELIZER, explores this extraordinary period of time in his book, The Fierce Urgency of Now. It’s also about the role that grassroots activists and civil rights leaders, including Martin Luther King, played in getting this legislation passed.

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