Law and Order: Street Crime, Civil Unrest, and the Crisis of Liberalism in the 1960s

Columbia Studies in Contemporary American History

by Michael W. Flamm

Law and Order offers a valuable new study of the political and social history of the 1960s. It presents a sophisticated account of how the issues of street crime and civil unrest enhanced the popularity of conservatives, eroded the credibility of liberals, and transformed the landscape of American politics. Ultimately, the legacy of law and order was a political world in which the grand ambitions of the Great Society gave way to grim expectations. In the mid-1960s, amid a pervasive sense that American society was coming apart at the seams, a new issue known as law and order emerged at the forefront of national politics. First introduced by Barry Goldwater in his ill-fated run for president in 1964, it eventually punished Lyndon Johnson and the Democrats and propelled Richard Nixon and the Republicans to the White House in 1968. In this thought-provoking study, Michael Flamm examines how conservatives successfully blamed liberals for the rapid rise in street crime and then skillfully used law and order to link the understandable fears of white voters to growing unease about changing moral values, the civil rights movement, urban disorder, and antiwar protests. Flamm documents how conservatives constructed a persuasive message that argued that the civil rights movement had contributed to racial unrest and the Great Society had rewarded rather than punished the perpetrators of violence. The president should, conservatives also contended, promote respect for law and order and contempt for those who violated it, regardless of cause. Liberals, Flamm argues, were by contrast unable to craft a compelling message for anxious voters. Instead, liberals either ignored the crime crisis, claimed that law and order was a racist ruse, or maintained that social programs would solve the "root causes" of civil disorder, which by 1968 seemed increasingly unlikely and contributed to a loss of faith in the ability of the government to do what it was above all sworn to do-protect personal security and private property.

Genres: History, Nonfiction, American History, Sociology, Politics

312 pages, Hardcover

First published June 1, 2005

Reviews

[Jen · Rating 2 out of 5]

Very descriptive and lacks the punch I was looking for.

[Elaine · Rating 3 out of 5]

this argument was so so interesting to me. i feel like i understand america sm more. but it was also lowkey boring.

[Andy Post · Rating 4 out of 5]

Provides a detailed account of the liberal elites--including the administrations of Kennedy and Johnson--and their attempt to reframe the oppressing structures of racialized capitalism and the growth of the security state as protectors against disorder and lawlessness. The liberal movement, which attempted to distinguish between race and crime, civil rights and riots, eventually was overtaken by the law and order rhetoric of conservatives--as well as failures of their own structuralist policies in the Wars on Poverty and Crime. The greatest undoing of the liberal narrative was their hypocritical war in Vietnam, and their refusal to acknowledge so-called "radical" protests against the police-state and unequal distribution of capital

[columbialion · Rating 4 out of 5]

Political discussion on the beginnings of "new" conservatism and law and order agenda

[Elizabeth · Rating 4 out of 5]

Dazzling!

[Tim Brown · Rating 3 out of 5]

Decent history of the four turbulent years from 1964-68 that presents a balanced approach to the 1960s era heretofore recounted almost exclusively by leftist-liberal academics and former hippies.