Remarks at the University of Michigan by Lyndon B. Johnson

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Essay #87 – Remarks at the University of Michigan by Lyndon B. Johnson

Daily Essay 2013, Eric Wise 4. The Classics that Inspired the Constitution, 13. Guest Constitutional Scholar Essayists, Declaration of Independence, Eric Wise, Remarks at the University of Michigan by Lyndon B. Johnson

Guest Essayist: J. Eric Wise, Partner at Gibson Dunn & Crutcher LLP, New York City

The Great Society Speech

President Lyndon Johnson delivered the Great Society speech at the University of Michigan in May of 1964. Superficially, the Great Society speech is a typical modern speech, an agenda of platitudinous and pragmatic goals. More deeply, the Great Society speech represents a dramatic rhetorical reorientation of the United States.

Ambitious American political speeches invoke the founding. And the Great Society Speech is no exception, alluding to the Declaration of Independence. The Declaration of Independence sets forth both the basis Read more

June 18, 2013/0 Comments/by Janine Turner and Cathy Gillespie

Remarks at the University of Michigan by Lyndon B. Johnson (1908-1973) – Reprinted from The U.S. Constitution, A Reader, Published by Hillsdale College

Classics that Inspired the Constitution, Daily Reading 2013, Remarks at the University of Michigan by Lyndon B. Johnson, The Original Documents 4. The Classics that Inspired the Constitution, Remarks at the University of Michigan by Lyndon B. Johnson

In this commencement address, President Johnson introduces his Progressive idea of a “Great Society.”

May 22, 1964

President Hatcher, Governor Romney, Senators McNamara and Hart, Congressmen Meader and Staebler, and other members of the fine Michigan delegation, members of the graduating class, my fellow Americans:

It is a great pleasure to be here today. This university has been coeducational since 1870, Read more

June 18, 2013/0 Comments/by Janine Turner and Cathy Gillespie