Retrospect on Moynihan

This book is a care• fully presented record of one social scientist’s involvement, at the higest level, with governmental planning. The book presents the political context of the Moynihan report, the report itself, the controversies that followed in its wake, and the (hopefully temporary) political burial of both the report and its scholarly and colorful author.

Moynihan’s political history and academic credentials might have led one to predict great success for him in Washington. Moynihan has been an aide to Robert Wagner and Averell Harriman, has helped in Kennedy’s Presidential campaign, and at 34 he became Washington’s youngest subcabinet member. As Assistant Secretary of Labor he had people such as R...