Progressivism

12 Key excerpts on "Progressivism"

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  Someone Has to Fail

  The Zero-Sum Game of Public Schooling

  • David F. Labaree(Author)
  • 2011(Publication Date)
  • Harvard University Press

    (Publisher)

  The Rise of Political Progressivism Progressivism as a political movement arose in response to the social crisis brought on by the corporate industrial revolution at the end of the nineteenth century. It was a loosely organized movement with a broad array of aims, but they all revolved around what Robert Wiebe, the leading historian of progressiv-ism, called “the search for order.” 3 In particular, progressives sought to establish a new kind of political and social order, which was appropriate to the time and able to respond effectively to the period’s social crisis. Like the Whigs earlier in the century, the pro-gressives wanted to establish a new balance between enduring political and moral values and the new economic realities. They posed questions such as: What did democracy mean in a corpo-rate, industrial, urban, and multicultural society such as the one that had developed in the United States? How could government intervene in the economy to alleviate the social dislocations it had caused without destroying the new economy’s enormous capacity to produce wealth and raise the standard of living? And if we needed a much stronger and more interventionist govern-ment in order to deal with the emerging power of the large cor-porations, how could this government remain truly responsive to its citizens? To create a new order that would provide solutions to these problems called for a multistranded political movement. One strand focused on producing a new kind of democracy. The 90 S O M E O N E H A S T O FA I L ideal of republican community seemed better suited to the city states of preimperial Rome and Renaissance Florence than to the political reality of the turn-of-the-century American industrial city.

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  The Enduring Vision, Volume II: Since 1865

  • Paul Boyer, Clifford Clark, Karen Halttunen, Joseph Kett(Authors)
  • 2017(Publication Date)
  • Cengage Learning EMEA

    (Publisher)

  Women’s clubs embraced reform. Intellectuals challenged the ideological foundations of a business-dominated social order, and journalists exposed municipal corruption and industrialism’s human toll. Throughout America, activists worked to make government more democratic, improve conditions in cities and factories, and curb corporate power. Historians have grouped all these efforts under a single label: “the progressive movement.” In fact, “Progressivism” was less a single movement than a spirit of discontent with the status quo and an exciting sense of new social possibilities. International in scope, this spirit found many outlets and addressed many issues. 21-1.1 The Many Faces of Progressivism Who were the progressives, and what reforms did they pursue? The social changes of the era pro-vide clues to the answers. Along with immigration, a growing middle class transformed U.S. cities. From the men and women of this class—mostly white, native-born Protestants—came many of the progressive movement’s leaders and supporters. From 1900 to 1920, the white-collar workforce jumped from 5.1 million to 10.5 million—more than double the growth rate of the labor force as a whole. This burgeoning white-collar class included corporate executives and small-business owners; secretaries, accountants, and sales clerks; civil engi-neers and people in advertising; and professionals such as lawyers, physicians, and teachers. New pro-fessional groups arose, from the American Associa-tion of University Professors (1915) to the American Association of Advertising Agencies (1917). For many middle-class Americans, membership in a national professional society provided a sense of identity that might earlier have come from neigh-borhood, church, or political party. Ambitious, well educated, and valuing social stability, the members of this new middle class were eager to make their influence felt. For middle-class women, the city offered both opportunities and frustrations.

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  Civic Ideals

  Conflicting Visions of Citizenship in U.S. History

  • Rogers M. Smith(Author)
  • 2008(Publication Date)
  • Yale University Press

    (Publisher)

  12 Progressivism and the New American Empire, 1898-1912 Though scholars dispute what Progressivism was, few deny that both major parties and American politics generally changed dur-ing the first two decades of the twentieth century in ways that com-prise a distinct Progressive Era. The impact of the range of politi-cal, social, and intellectual movements that may be termed Progressivism is proven by the 1912 election. 1 In it a Progressive third-party candidate, Theodore Roosevelt, ran against Democrat Woodrow Wilson, who espoused a less nationalistic version of pro-gressivism, and against Roosevelt's former protege, Republican William Howard Taft, a conservative who still supported many of Roosevelt's reforms. Though he was by then reviled by followers of the other two, even Taft falls in a lineage that deserves to be termed right Progressivism. Conversely, the surprisingly successful So-cialist candidate that year, Eugene V. Debs, had long shared many positions with left progressives, though he remained more radical. After Wilson won, he set about implementing his version of pro-gressivism until World War I interrupted and modified those ef-forts, sharpening their nationalistic and anti-socialist elements in ways that would have an enduring impact on American citizenship in the twentieth century. 2 Important as those later developments were, by 1912 all the main reformulations of American civic ideologies that would com-pete in the rest of the twentieth century were already visible. They confirm beyond question the persistent, often resurgent appeal of inegalitarian ascriptive civic ideologies, along with egalitarian lib-eral and republican themes, in American politics. Hence it is in 1912 that this historical survey will close. This point is admittedly a bit arbitrary, for the Progressive years represented only the deep-

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  Reconsidering American Liberalism

  The Troubled Odyssey Of The Liberal Idea

  • James Young(Author)
  • 2018(Publication Date)
  • Routledge

    (Publisher)

  10 The Problem of Progressivism

  THE ORIGINS of the modern American state lie in the ideas and institutional changes of the Progressives. The state that the Progressive movement fostered, which began an attempt to make peace with modernity, produced results that can hardly have been what the populists had in mind. Nevertheless, the incipient modern state did introduce into American politics a conception of activist government, which the populists had previously championed, and it also adopted some of their institutional remedies. As with populism, the historiography of Progressivism is extremely complex, so much so that some historians have proposed discarding the very term as conceptually useless.1 This solution has not taken hold, so it is necessary to try to sort out at least some of the conflicting viewpoints. Part of the difficulty no doubt lies in the fact that Progressivism, unlike populism, was a national movement, which manifested itself at the federal, state, and local levels of government and which was subject to considerable ideological debate and political infighting. Moreover, there was often a gap between the fierce moral rhetoric of the movement and its actual accomplishments. Therefore, some observers have been moved, perhaps not entirely without reason, to question the motives of the reformers. One might add that the moral rhetoric of the political leaders often contrasted with the relativism of the Progressive philosophers.

  Progressivism, though heir to a good deal of populist rhetoric and ideology, was primarily an urban, middle-class phenomenon; it lasted for a considerable period of time—conventionally, from 1900 to 1920. However, perhaps more important than who the Progressives were and where they were located was the fact that they, unlike the populists, produced a great deal of social and political theory. Further, to a great extent, those ideas continue to be of great importance in shaping contemporary liberal thought. To some extent, reform liberals today might be said to be living still on the intellectual capital of Progressivism.

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  Writing a Progressive Past

  Women Teaching and Writing in the Progressive Era

  • Lisa Mastrangelo(Author)
  • 2012(Publication Date)
  • Parlor Press, LLC

    (Publisher)

  The view that “women must be prepared for ‘life,’ not simply for ‘society’” fueled the seminary and later the collegiate movements (193). In a rupture from Victorianism, women moved out of the home to become more involved in education (including higher education), politics, and social reform (Alridge 424). Eventually, Progressivism came to be commonly associated with ed-ucation in the United States in multiple disciplines. As Samuel Bowles and Herbert Gintis note in Schooling in Capitalist America , the liberal Writing a Progressive Past 6 educational theories of progressivists at this time had three goals for education. “First and foremost, schools must help integrate youth into the various occupational, political, familial and other adult roles by an expanding economy and a stable policy” (21). Second, while inequality was seen as inevitable, each individual in a society should be given an equal chance, via education, to compete for the social and economic privileges available. Dewey, for example, exceeded this goal when he advocated for the idea that education should in itself be an equalizing force against inequality and poverty (Bowles and Gintis 21). The third goal of progressive education was that “education is seen as a major instrument in promoting the psychic and moral development of the individual” (21). All three of these goals were fashioned in direct re-sponse to the prevailing social conditions in the United States and the perceived need for an increase in education. Along with theoretical changes and developments in education, Progressivism was made possible in the first place by the changes in the industrial and political systems that resulted in the emergence of the notion that all citizens within the democracy had the right to a public education.

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  Popular Controversies in World History

  Investigating History's Intriguing Questions [4 volumes]

  • Steven L. Danver(Author)
  • 2010(Publication Date)
  • ABC-CLIO

    (Publisher)

  This period centered on a collectivism that began in 1870 and closed with the American entry into the Great War, World War I, CON | 15 when America turned to individualism. This collapse was partly the result of the success of the movements of various and dispersant groups. Various philoso- phies and political actions were taken in response to progressive efforts that molded a society that was more responsive to the needs of the majority, where little attention was given the wealthiest economic segments of a nascent indus- trial society. However, the atmosphere and climate-engendering Progressivism were bleak for the average worker. The earmarks of the movement for this pe- riod were little governmental regulation, poor pay, abominable health conditions, and grossly inadequate economic facilities. The cause c el  ebre for the move- ment’s success arose from despair, the intellectual belief that the worker could never attain the benefits being recently advertised in print throughout America during the Gilded Age. In juxtaposition to wealthy political and economic con- trol, Americans of varied origins, backgrounds, education, and profession reacted to the societal inequities dominant throughout with a sense if social justice. Elements of Liberal Progressivism Conflict is present between all segments of society, and efforts taken to pursue changes in the relationships of these are difficult. An analysis of the attributes of liberal Progressivism shows that its elements are similar to a liberal interpre- tation of fascism, even though the latter term is an anathema to many. Jonah Goldberg’s (2007) Liberal Fascism provides an analysis of the subject beyond the scope of this section, but it is worth reading for a comparison of their re- spective elements. The tome argues that fascist elements in government existed well into the administration of Franklin D. Roosevelt. However, Goldberg posits that many do not understand the terms used.

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  Progressive Challenges to the American Constitution

  A New Republic

  • Bradley C. S. Watson(Author)
  • 2017(Publication Date)
  • Cambridge University Press

    (Publisher)

  It is offered as one concise example of how progres- sivism and the Social Gospel were deeply connected at the levels of both ideas and policy. 41 For both the Social Gospel and Progressivism gener- ally, the evolutionary power of history had brought a sea change in what was possible both in human nature and in human government. The power of the state came to be looked on with new optimism, a vision that required the overturning of both the old theology and the old political philosophy. notes 1. This was particularly true of those associated with the New Republic and the more scientific wing of the movement. But even this element of the movement shared the view of its more religiously inclined progressive brethren: that the orthodox variant of Christianity was a great obstacle to progress and that it was especially an obstacle to reforming education. Progressives saw in tradi- tional religious education an unhealthy encouragement of the young to focus on the private sphere, thus detracting from the undivided devotion to the state on which progressive democracy was to depend. The New Republic 156 American Progressivism and the Social Gospel editorialized in 1916 that there should be a “change in the meaning of tolerance.” Contrary to eighteenth-century liberalism, the editors explained, “twentieth-century democracy believes that the community has certain posi- tive ends to achieve, and if they are to be achieved the community must control the education of the young.” It editorialized that “freedom and tolerance mean the development of independent powers of judgment in the young, not the freedom of older people to impose their dogmas on the young.” Modern democracy, it concluded, “insists that the plasticity of the child shall not be artificially and prematurely hardened into a philosophy of life.” “Father Blakely States the Issue,” unsigned editorial from the New Republic, July 29, 1916, 320.

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  The Brief American Pageant

  A History of the Republic

  • David Kennedy, Lizabeth Cohen, Mel Piehl, , David Kennedy, Lizabeth Cohen, Mel Piehl(Authors)
  • 2015(Publication Date)
  • Cengage Learning EMEA

    (Publisher)

  474 CHAPTER 28 474 Part STRUGGLING FOR JUSTICE AT HOME AND ABROAD 1901–1945 T he new century brought astonishing changes to the United States. Victory in the Spanish-American War made it clear that the United States was a world power. Indus-trialization ushered in giant corporations, sprawling facto-ries, sweatshop labor, and the ubiquitous automobile. A huge wave of immigration was altering the face of the nation, espe-cially the cities, where a majority of Americans lived by 1920. With bigger cities came bigger fears—of crime, vice, poverty, and disease. Changes of such magnitude raised vexing questions. What role should the United States play in the world? How could the enormous power of industry be controlled? How would the millions of new immigrants make their way in America? What should the country do about poverty, dis-ease, and the continuing plague of racial inequality? All these issues turned on a fundamental point: should govern-ment remain narrowly limited in its powers, or did the times require a more potent government that would actively shape society and secure American interests abroad? The progressive movement represented the first attempt to answer those questions. Reform-minded men and women from all walks of life and from both major parties shared in the progressive crusade for greater government activism. Buoyed by this outlook, Presidents Theodore Roosevelt, William Howard Taft, and Woodrow Wilson enlarged the capacity of government to fight graft, “bust” business trusts, regulate corporations, and promote fair labor practices, child welfare, conservation, and consumer protection. Progressive reformers, convinced that women would bring greater moral-ity to politics, bolstered the decades-long struggle for female suffrage. Women finally secured the vote in 1920 with the rati-fication of the Nineteenth Amendment. The progressive-era presidents also challenged America’s tradition of isolationism in foreign policy.

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  Keeping the Compound Republic

  Essays on American Federalism

  • Martha Derthick(Author)
  • 2004(Publication Date)
  • Brookings Institution Press

    (Publisher)

  20 Political Theory The Progressive Era was a period of centralization in measures of public policy. Critics of centralization, defenders of the established way of think-ing, conceived of them as constitutional usurpations, or as the partisan acts of congressional majorities. 21 Progressive thinkers, however, justified them as necessary responses to the default and incapacity of state governments. The classic statement of this view, widely noticed at the time and cited since, came in a speech late in 1906 by Elihu Root, Theodore Roosevelt's secretary of state, even though Root was identified much more with the conservative than the Progressive wing of the Republican Party. He argued Progressivism AND FEDERALISM 111 that state lines were being obliterated by three forces: an increase in national sentiment, domestic free trade, and technological changes in transportation and communication. Under the new conditions of eco-nomic and social interdependence on a national scale, the states were no longer capable of performing such functions as the regulation of railroad rates, inspection of meat, and guaranteeing the safety of foods and drugs. The states could be preserved, Root continued, only if they awakened to their own duties to the country at large.

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  What Happened? An Encyclopedia of Events That Changed America Forever

  [4 volumes]

  • John E. Findling, Frank W. Thackeray, John E. Findling, Frank W. Thackeray(Authors)
  • 2010(Publication Date)
  • ABC-CLIO

    (Publisher)

  Many Progressives were middle-class and college-educated people who wanted to fight cor- ruption and help the disadvantaged poor, as well as better their own condition. Often centered in large cities, they wrote exposés of poor working conditions in industry and of corruption in government, brought new ideas to education, and fostered reform in all areas of city life and administration. Progressivism also drew on the support of groups, such as workers and consumers, who either were interested in such specific issues as worker’s compensation and child labor or felt a more general commitment to tame the power of the “Interests.” Roosevelt backed Charles Evans Hughes for the presidency in  and was an ardent supporter of the military effort in World War I. Although he opposed Wilson’s Fourteen Points, he was, with reservations, in favor of the League of Nations. On January , , he died of malaria, contracted a few years earlier on an expedition to Brazil. SETTLEMENT HOUSE MOVEMENT During the late th century, settlement houses, which provided education and help to the working class, spread rapidly throughout the United States. The settlement house Progressivism, 1901–1914 19 movement began in England, when Anglican clergyman Samuel A. Barnett and several Oxford University students founded Toynbee Hall in an undesirable section of East London in . Their concept was to enable university men to establish themselves in a working-class neighborhood so they could experience poverty at close hand and then help to alleviate it. The settlement idea soon reached the United States. Stanton Coit was the first to es- tablish a U.S. settlement house, with the  opening of the Neighborhood Guild on the Lower East Side of New York City. Three years later, Jane Addams and Ellen Starr began Hull House on the West Side of Chicago. The settlement house concept spread quickly, and by , there were more than  houses throughout the country.

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  The United States in the Long Twentieth Century

  Politics and Society since 1900

  • Michael Heale(Author)
  • 2014(Publication Date)
  • Bloomsbury Academic

    (Publisher)

  Specialists of various sorts offered advice on public policy. As the celebrated journalist Walter Lippmann observed in 1913 of the prospective governmental mechanisms, ‘We shall use all science as a tool and a weapon’. Many of these experts were convinced that it was possible for humankind to control its environment and they lent their support to the emerging progressive SHAPING THE PROGRESSIVE ORDER, 1900–33 9 movements. Some were avid students of the solutions being proposed in Europe to the problems common to urban-industrial societies, though such European ideas had to be accommodated to the distinctive imperatives of American political culture. The prescriptions of these experts often implied a more active role for government, such as in regulating public health, but in the United States they were recommending them to a public that had little confidence in governments apparently captured by special interests. Before effective economic and social reform could take place the political system had to be cleansed. The varieties of Progressivism will be examined later, but the attempts to democratize American politics need to be discussed here. The political order was changing in response to the pressures triggered by industrialization, but the political progressives also left their mark. It seemed to many that the tensions that threatened the peace of American society stemmed in no small degree from the malfunctioning of the political system. Government no longer reflected the will of the whole community; special interests, particularly ‘the trusts’, had insinuated themselves at strategic junctures, often grasping monopoly privileges and warping public policies. Party political machines too had intruded between the citizenry and the government, illicitly perpetuating their own power and promoting the interests of their particular clients.

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  Fractured Modernity

  America Confronts Modern Times, 1890s to 1940s

  • Thomas Welskopp, Alan Lessoff, Thomas Welskopp, Alan Lessoff(Authors)
  • 2016(Publication Date)
  • De Gruyter Oldenbourg

    (Publisher)

  Alternative lines in progressive thought, however, inspired the National Association for the Ad-vancement of Colored People, the Urban League, and other civil rights organiz-ations founded in the period. Women activists and women’s issues, as noted ear-lier, played an indispensible role in progressive action and thought. Still, historians of the race and gender dimensions of Progressivism are often less animated by the analytical implications of their work than by its usefulness to present-day move-ments to spur pride among African Americans and women, overcome inequities based on race and gender, and press the country to live up to its egalitarian ideals. In this sense, this writing is new version of the so-called New History or progres-sive history promoted in the Progressive Era by James Harvey Robinson and Charles Beard, who emphasized reinterpretation of the past in service of contem-porary issues and agendas. To cite another example, much domestic American discussion of the Progres-sive Era centers on dramatic political personalities who symbolize aspects of the era and stances on its problems. American writing on these pivotal figures can have an internal-conversation quality whose assumptions are hard to penetrate. Theodore Roosevelt, the public figure most identified with American progressiv-ism, should be recognizable to Europeans, even given his belligerent chauvinism and his romantic embrace of the West and frontier lore. TR’s fusion of a national-ist foreign policy with a nationalistic domestic reform agenda – along with his pa-trician sense of social responsibility and his imaginative engagement with the economic, social, and cultural implications of modernity – had many counterparts across Europe. Contemporaries contrasted and historians still contrast Roosevelt with his main rival among Republican progressives, Robert La Follette, who perceived a big-city, Tory element in Roosevelt out of sympathy with the country’s heartland democracy.

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