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""In discussing slavery and woman's rights, social security and the
graduated income tax,"" writes Robert Walker, ""the reformers have
defined and redefined America."" Recognizing in the history of
reform a prime source for the discovery of cultural priorities,
Walker seeks in Reform in America to organize the reform experience
in a new way, so that its collective patterns can be seen. Reform
in America identifies three principal streams of reform advocacy in
American history. Politico-economic issues, the mainstream of
reform, are exemplified by a detailed study of the politics of
money from 1832 to 1913. Reform on behalf of special groups, the
second major category, is illuminated by the examples of movements
on behalf of blacks and women and by an examination of the civil
liberties and civil rights movements, which again have been
principally concerned with the extension of rights and liberties to
particular groups. A third category is established by connecting
communitarianism, utopianism, and visionary planning to form a
tradition through which ideal alternatives are offered to the
existing social order. Walker's interpretation minimizes the stark
contrasts in social activity and underlines those continuous forces
that have moved American society steadily in the direction of
broadened political participation, increased concern for special
groups, and a dynamic sequence of cultural goals. He thus draws our
attention to what may be America's most lasting frontier-the
management of social change toward certain general objectives. The
appreciation of reform, in the end, requires an adjusted perception
of the national character, one that sees competitive individualism
as at least balanced and perhaps outweighed by a demonstrated
preoccupation with the common weal.
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