In this upcoming Independent Institute event and based on her new #1 New York Times bestselling book, author Amity Shlaes will show ...

Independent Policy Forum
War on Poverty or War on the Poor?
The Great Society’s Welfare State
Tuesday, 14 January 2020 • Oakland, California
Today, a battle is raging in the U.S. Many Americans have become attracted to socialism and economic redistribution while opponents argue for less government, free markets and greater choice. In the 1960s, Americans sought the same goals many seek now: an end to poverty, higher standards of living for the middle class, a better environment and more access to health care and education. Then, too, America debated public-sector entitlement versus private-sector advancement. Time and again, whether under John F. Kennedy, Lyndon B. Johnson, or Richard M. Nixon, the country chose more and more government. Yet achieving these goals has been elusive at best. What’s more, Johnson’s and Nixon’s programs have shackled millions and millions of families in permanent government dependence and brokenness.

In this special Independent Institute event and based on her new book, Great Society: A New History, #1 New York Times bestselling author Amity Shlaes will show that the costs of the Big-Government entitlement commitments made a half century ago are precluding the very opportunities needed now and in the future for Americans, especially the most disadvantaged.

In Great Society, Ms. Shlaes offers a powerful companion to her legendary, bestselling history of the 1930s, The Forgotten Man, and shows that in fact there was scant difference between two presidents many people consider opposites: Johnson and Nixon. Just as Big Government technocratic planning by “the Best and the Brightest” made failure in Vietnam inevitable, so planning by a team of the domestic "best and brightest" also guaranteed a fiasco at home. Great Society sketches moving portraits of the characters in this transformative period, from U.S. Presidents to UAW leader Walter Reuther, the founders of Intel Corporation, and Federal Reserve System chairmen William McChesney Martin and Arthur F. Burns. Great Society casts new light on other figures too, from Ronald Reagan, then Governor of California, to the socialist Michael Harrington and California protest leader Tom Hayden.

Drawing on her economic expertise and deep historical knowledge, Ms. Shlaes upends the conventional narrative, providing a devastating indictment of the consequences of thoughtless and misguided idealism with striking relevance for today. Great Society captures a dramatic contest with lessons both dark and bright and how we can and should now proceed.
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Schedule:
Tuesday, 14 January 2020
6:30 p.m.: Wine and Hors d’Oeuvres Reception and Book Signing
7:30 p.m.: Program and Q&A

Where:
Independent Institute Conference Center
100 Swan Way
Oakland, CA 94621
Map and directions ([link removed])
Free Parking!

Tickets:
Regular Admission: $40 or $30 for Independent Institute Members ([link removed]) *

Special Book Discount:
Add $20 for a copy of Great Society: A New History, by Amity Schlaes (38% Discount!)

RSVP required: Limited Seating
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Featuring
[link removed] R. Shlaes is the author of acclaimed the new book, Great Society: A New History and four #1 New York Times bestsellers, The Forgotten Man: A New History of the Great Depression, The Forgotten Man: Graphic, a full-length illustrated version of the same book drawn by Paul Rivoche, Coolidge, a full-length biography of the thirtieth president and The Greedy Hand: How Taxes Drive Americans Crazy. National Review called the Forgotten Man “the finest history of the Great Depression ever written.” The Economist wrote of Coolidge that the book “deserves to be widely read” and made it an Editor’s Choice for 2013. The Forgotten Man: Graphic reached the #1 spot in its bestseller category.

A former member of the editorial board and columnist at the Wall Street Journal Ms. Shlaes is Chairman of the Board of the Calvin Coolidge Presidential Foundation and serves as Presidential Scholar at the King’s College in New York. She is the recipient of both the Hayek Prize and Frederic Bastiat Prize, and she has been a finalist for the Loeb Prize in Commentary.
Featured Book
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Great Society: A New History
“Original and persuasive . . . Ms. Shlaes’s chronicle is not just a story of how good people’s good intentions went wrong. It is also a story of how the assumption that the near future will closely resemble the recent past can lead even the best intentioned and most well-informed people to pursue policies that turn out to be mostly counterproductive and often destructive.”
—Wall Street Journal

“Great Society is accurate history that reads like a novel, covering the high hopes and catastrophic missteps of our well-meaning leaders.”
—Alan Greenspan, former Chairman of the U.S. Federal Reserve System

“This well-researched and smoothly written masterpiece sheds a badly needed lesson-laden light on one of the most important and turbulent times in American history. Shlaes has rendered a book for the ages.”
—Steve Forbes, Chairman of Forbes Media LLC and Editor-in-Chief of Forbes Magazine

“Shlaes’s account of America in the 1960s recalls her 2007 The Forgotten Man about America in the 1930s, and finds—guess what?—a complicated nation. The author writes with a free style, including information on lesser-known figures of the era, as well as an interesting assessment of Presidents Lyndon B. Johnson and Richard Nixon.”
—Washington Post

“A provocative, well-argued take on a turbulent era.”
—Kirkus Reviews

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