Long before the current calls for national service, civic
responsibility, and the restoration of community values, the
Progressives initiated a remarkably similar challenge. Eldon
Eisenach traces the evolution of this powerful national movement
from its theoretical origins through its dramatic rise and sudden
demise, and shows why their philosophy still speaks to us with such
eloquence.
Eisenach analyzes how and why, between 1885 and World War I,
progressive political ideas conquered almost every cultural and
intellectual bastion except constitutional law and dominated every
major national institution except the courts and party system.
Progressives, he demonstrates, were especially influential as a
force in American politics, higher education, and the media. They
created wideranging professional networks that functioned like a
"hidden national government" to counter a federal government they
deeply distrusted. They viewed the university as their national
"Church"--the main repository and disseminator of values they
espoused. They established truly national journals for a national
audience. And they drew much support from women's rights advocates
and other highly vocal movements of their time.
Permeated with an evangelical Protestant vision of the future,
progressive thought was an integral part of the national discourse
for nearly three decades. But, as Eisenach reveals, at the very
moment of its triumph it disintegrated as both a coherent theory
and a viable public doctrine. With the election in 1912 of Woodrow
Wilson, the movement reached its peak, but thereafter lost its
momentum and force. Its precipitous decline was accelerated by
world war and by the rise of New Deal liberalism. By the end of the
Depression it had disappeared as an influential player in American
public life.
In the decades that followed, the Progressive mantle went
unclaimed. Conservatives blamed the Progressives for the rise of
the welfare state and many liberals cringed at their theological
and imperialist rhetoric. Eisenach, however, argues that we still
have much to learn about and from the Progressives. By enlarging
our understanding of their thought, we greatly increase our
understanding of an America whose national institutions--political,
cultural, educational, religious, professional, economic, and
journalistic--are all largely the product of this thinking. In
other words, their ideas are still very much with us.
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