| A People''s War on Poverty: Urban Politics, Grassroots Activists, and the Struggle for Democracy in Houston, 1964-1976 Subjects: Community Action Program (U.S.) -- History; Community development -- Texas -- Houston -- History -- 20th century; Poor -- Services for -- Texas -- Houston -- History -- 20th century; Poor -- Political activity -- Texas -- Houston -- History -- 20th centur; In A People's War on Poverty , Wesley G. Phelps investigates the on-the-ground implementation of President Lyndon Johnson's War on Poverty during the 1960s and 1970s. He argues that the fluid interaction between federal policies, urban politics, and grassroots activists created a significant site of conflict over the meaning of American democracy and the rights of citizenship that historians have largely overlooked. In Houston in particular, the War on Poverty spawned fierce political battles that revealed fundamental disagreements over what democracy meant, how far it should extend, and who should benefit from it. Many of the program's implementers took seriously the federal mandate to empower the poor as they pushed for a more participatory form of democracy that would include more citizens in the political, cultural, and economic life of the city. WESLEY G. PHELPS is an assistant professor of history at Sam Houston State University. |