Reinventing "The People"

by Stromquist, Shelton

• ISBN13: 9780252030260
• ISBN10: 0252030265
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2005-12-21
• Publisher: Univ of Illinois Pr

Summary

In this much needed comprehensive study of the Progressive movement, its reformers, their ideology, and the social circumstances they tried to change, Shelton Stromquist contends that the persistence of class conflict in America challenged the very defining feature of Progressivism: its promise of social harmony through democratic renewal.Profiling the movement's work in diverse arenas of social reform, politics, labour regulation and "race improvement," Stromquist argues that while progressive reformers may have emphasized different programs, they crafted a common language of social reconciliation in which an imagined civic community ("the People") would transcend parochial class and political loyalties. As progressive reformers sought to reinvent a society in which class had no enduring place, they also marginalized new immigrants and African Americans as being unprepared for civic responsibilities. In so doing, Stromquist argues that Progressives laid the foundation for twentieth-century liberals' inability to see their world in class terms and to conceive of social remedies that might alter the structures of class power.

Author Biography

Shelton Stromquist is a professor of history and a collegiate fellow of the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences at the University of Iowa.

Table of Contents

Preface	vii
Introduction: Progressives and the Problem of Class	1	(12)
The Labor Problem and the Crisis of the Old Order	13	(20)
Constituting Progressivism	33	(23)
The Politics of Reform	56	(27)
Communities of Reformers	83	(24)
Class Bridging and the World of Female Reform	107	(24)
The Boundaries of Difference	131	(34)
Class Wars and the Crisis of Progressivism	165	(26)
Conclusion: War and the Ragged Edges of Reform	191	(14)
Notes	205	(72)
Index	277