A very thorough and readable history of the politics of the 60's. The authors present the personalities of the key figures in a very vivid and unvarnished way. ( )

it's not that Mackenzie and Weisbrot write on The Liberal Hour (realizing my interest in liberal values), rather they point out how it was squandered which earns the rating. They date the liberal hour from 1963 to 1966. Kennedy gets credit for 11 months of the liberal hour, taking the election of '62 which left him majorities in both chambers, and felt the wind at his back. Johnson made a good deal of the momentum Kennedy left him, and used JFK's death as a call to his agenda. Johnson was the man, possibly ever in Capitol Hill history to bring home a complete legislative package. The authors point to Johnson's hubris and the liberal faults which led to programs they couldn't fulfill

The book separates the issues of the time as separate chapters, and treats them as if they had a cabinet portfolio. The Liberal Hour is therefore, not a diary, a chronology. The issues of the day interlaced, not only in the minds of the White House, but in the figures of the time For all the progress towards the Great Society, the quote from Dr King sums it up, paraphrasing. Viet Nam ended the Great Society.

The authors point to the confluence of the three branches achieving a liberal synergy, and offer a thorough review of the Warren court to the hour. While they have placed '63 - '66 as its highest point, they say that with the appointment of Warren Burger as Chief Justice in Nixon's first days in '69, the Liberal Hour was over and every one knew it. ( )