DOMESTIC AFFAIRS: American Programs and Priorities

by James H. Duffy ‧ RELEASE DATE: Jan. 1, 1978

In his preface, James Duffy admits to a liberal Democratic bias and quotes from Lyndon Johnson on objectivity: ""I believe there is always a national answer to each national problem, and, believing this, I do not believe that there are necessarily two sides to every question."" Ignoring the trouble into which such an attitude got Johnson, Dully takes a similar tack in this highly partisan and dully familiar book. He traces the major American domestic issues from 1945 to 1977 and finds the liberals always the good guys and the conservatives always the bad guys. Thus, Nixon is solely responsible for inflation in the Seventies because he failed to renew the income tax surtax; the long-term inflationary effects of creating a war-based economy in the Sixties are conveniently overlooked. The analysis of problems, the proposed solutions (like the Humphrey-Hawkins full employment bill), the sources of current evils--all are apparent before Duffy even starts his discussion. It is not that many of these ideas are not good ones, but they have been presented so many times before that one wonders, as Duffy does in his preface, why he bothered to publish them at all.

Pub Date: Jan. 1, 1978

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: -

Publisher: Simon & Schuster

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 1978

Categories: NONFICTION