Progressivism In America

American Progressivism is a one-volume edition of some of the most important essays, speeches, and book excerpts from the leading figures of national Progressivism. It is designed for classroom use, includes an accessible interpretive essay, and introduces each selection with a brief historical and conceptual background. The introductory essay is written with the student in mind, and addresses the important characteristics of Progressive thought and the role of Progressives in the development of the American political tradition. Students of American political thought, American politics, American history, the presidency, Congress, and political parties will find this reader to be an invaluable source for insight into Progressivism.

The Progressive Era, from the 1890s to the 1920s, was one of the most important periods in American social, political, and economic history. During this time, the United States saw a great change in the role of government, particularly in terms of its involvement in the regulation of business and industry. This era has often been characterized as the first period in which government power was increased for largely egalitarian reasons; however, many have argued the opposite case--that the legislation was designed by industry to serve its own purposes. In America Reformed: Progressives and Progressivisms, 1890s-1920s, author Maureen A. Flanagan introduces progressivism less as a straightforward history of actual reforms than as a revision of the ways in which Americans organized themselves to confront the problems of their society. She examines how this reorganization in turn drew Americans into a new type of relationship with the federal government. Drawing on the most up-to-date scholarship, Flanagan explores what democracy meant to various citizens and emphasizes the "social justice" movement as an integral aspect of progressive reforms. Organized around four thematic lines of progressivism--political, social justice, economic, and foreign policy--the book analyzes the various ideas, actors, and movements that constituted the timeperiod. By incorporating coverage of how women, African Americans, and ethnic and working-class organizations participated in progressive reform movements, Flanagan reveals how the reform struggles of the period all revolved around defining the nature and purpose of U.S. democracy. Ideal for undergraduate courses in the U.S. Progressive Era and the Gilded Age/Progressive Era, America Reformed features documents, maps, and illustrations throughout, as well as anecdotes of historical events to introduce each chapter. The text also includes references to scholarly websites of original source material.

Now in its second edition, America in the Progressive Era, 1890–1917 provides a readable, analytical narrative of the emergence, influence, and decline of the spirit of progressive reform that animated American politics and culture around the turn of the twentieth century. Covering the turbulent 1890s to the American entry into World War I, the text examines the political, social, and cultural events of a period which set the agenda for American public life during the remainder of the twentieth century. This new edition places progressivism in a transatlantic context and gives more attention to voices outside the mainstream of party politics. Key features include: A clear account of the continuing debate in the United States over the role of government, citizenship, and the pursuit of social justice A full examination of the impact of reform on women and minorities A rich selection of documents that allow the historical actors to communicate with today’s readers An extensive, updated bibliography providing a valuable guide to additional reading and research Based on the most recent scholarship and written to be read by students, this book will be of interest to students of American History and Political History.

"Debate among progressives about the most suitable means for the promotion of progressive ends persists. The book shows that the choice depends upon shifting coalitions; political leadership; developments in culture, economics, demography, and technology; actions and events beyond our borders; and not least engagement with that larger liberalism that undergirds the American constitutional order and so connects the varieties of progressivism to the varieties of conservatism in America."--BOOK JACKET.

Chapter 20. How the Progressives Became the Tea Party's Mortal Enemy: Networks, Movements, and the Political Currency of Ideas -- Chapter 21. What Is to Be Done? A New Progressivism for a New Century -- List of Contributors -- Index -- A -- B -- C -- D -- E -- F -- G -- H -- I -- J -- K -- L -- M -- N -- O -- P -- R -- S -- T -- U -- V -- W -- Y -- Z

After decades of conservative dominance, the election of Barack Obama may signal the beginning of a new progressive era. But what exactly is progressivism? What role has it played in the political, social, and economic history of America? This very timely Very Short Introduction offers an engaging overview of progressivism in America--its origins, guiding principles, major leaders and major accomplishments. A many-sided reform movement that lasted from the late 1890s until the early 1920s, progressivism emerged as a response to the excesses of the Gilded Age, an era that plunged working Americans into poverty while a new class of ostentatious millionaires built huge mansions and flaunted their wealth. As capitalism ran unchecked and more and more economic power was concentrated in fewer and fewer hands, a sense of social crisis was pervasive. Progressive national leaders like William Jennings Bryan, Theodore Roosevelt, Robert M. La Follette, and Woodrow Wilson, as well as muckraking journalists like Lincoln Steffens and Ida Tarbell, and social workers like Jane Addams and Lillian Wald answered the growing call for change. They fought for worker's compensation, child labor laws, minimum wage and maximum hours legislation; they enacted anti-trust laws, improved living conditions in urban slums, instituted the graduated income tax, won women the right to vote, and laid the groundwork for Roosevelt's New Deal. Nugent shows that the progressives--with the glaring exception of race relations--shared a common conviction that society should be fair to all its members and that governments had a responsibility to see that fairness prevailed. Offering a succinct history of the broad reform movement that upset a stagnant conservative orthodoxy, this Very Short Introduction reveals many parallels, even lessons, highly appropriate to our own time. About the Series: Combining authority with wit, accessibility, and style, Very Short Introductions offer an introduction to some of life's most interesting topics. Written by experts for the newcomer, they demonstrate the finest contemporary thinking about the central problems and issues in hundreds of key topics, from philosophy to Freud, quantum theory to Islam.

Congenital malformations are worldwide occurrences striking in every condition of society. These severe physical abnormalities which are present at birth and affecting every part of the body happen more often than usually realized, once in every 33 births. The most common, after heart defects, are those of the neural tube (the brain and spinal cord) which happen in as many as one in every 350 births. They have been noted as curiousities in man and beast throughout recorded history and received great attention in our time by various fields of study, for example, their faulty prenatal development by embryologists, familial patterns by geneticists, causation by environmentalists and variability by population scientists. Attention turned much in recent years to the relation of these malformations to deficiency of a particular dietary ingredient, folic acid, a subject this book analyzes in depth. The greatest conundrum of all, which this latest matter like so much else hinges on, is the amazing fact of the tremendous, almost universal decrease in the frequency of these anomalies since early in the 20th century. The puzzle is What can this downward trend possibly mean? and at bottom Whether it is part of a long-term cyclical pattern . This fascinating biological phenomenon is explored in the book together with various other topics.