Reinventing "The People": The Progressive Movement, the Class Problem, and the Origins of Modern Liberalism

Shelton Stromquist

ISBN 10: 0252072693 / ISBN 13: 9780252072697

Published by University of Illinois Press, 2006

About this Item

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Seller Inventory # B9780252072697

Bibliographic Details

• Title: Reinventing "The People": The Progressive Movement, the Class Problem, and the Origins of Modern Liberalism
• Publisher: University of Illinois Press
• Publication Date: 2006
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0252072693
• ISBN 13: 9780252072697
• Binding: Paperback / softback
• Condition: New
• Weight: 435 grams

About this title

Synopsis

A comprehensive study of the Progressive movement, Reinventing "The People"contends that the persistence of class conflict in America challenged the very defining feature of Progressivism: its promise of social harmony through democratic renewal. 

Shelton Stromquist profiles the movement's work in diverse arenas of social reform, politics, labor regulation and so-called race improvement. While these reformers 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. But efforts to invent a society without enduring class lines marginalized new immigrants and African Americans by declaring them unprepared for civic responsibilities. In so doing, 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.

About the Author

Shelton Stromquist is a professor emeritus of history at the University of Iowa. He is editor of Labor's Cold War: Local Politics in a Global Context and coeditor of Frontiers of Labor: Comparative Histories of the United States and Australia.