Acknowledgments ix
Introduction 1
1 Setting the Stage: The Birth of the Progressive Impulse, 1893-1900 13
On the Farm 13
City Life 18
Hard Times: The Depression of 1893 24
Businesses: Small to Large 26
Small businesses evolve 26
Big business 34
Mergers and monopolies 37
Labor 38
The workplace in transition 40
The struggle to organize 42
Working women 46
African American workers 49
Immigrant workers 50
A New Era Dawns 51
2 Saving Society: Who Were the Progressives? 56
The Muckrakers 57
From Religious Roots to Secular Salvation 64
Fundamentalists 65
The Social Gospelers 66
Intellectual inspiration 67
From Charity Cases to Social Work 68
Women Progressives 70
Club women 70
Settlement workers advocate social justice 73
Professionalization in the Progressive Era 80
Social workers 81
The medical field 83
The legal profession 88
Engineering 89
Academia 89
The female professions: teaching, nursing, and librarianship 91
Businessmen 93
Labor Unions and Radical Movements 96
Other Special Interest Groups 98
Politicians and early reform 98
The "immigrant problem" 99
African Americans 100
Nativists 101
Farmers and Rural Reform 103
3 "Constructing the World Anew": Progressive Agency, 1900-1911 106
Stepping into a New World: The Industrial City 106
Settlement Workers Transform the Neighborhoods 109
Women's Political Culture Emerges 114
Jane Addams elevates settlement activism 116
Workers on the Move 118
Health and safety in the workplace 120
Florence Kelley and the Push for Protective Legislation 127
Child labor 129
Educational Reform 133
Social Centers 135
The Chautauqua movement 138
Country Life Commission 139
Political Pathways to Reform 141
Mugwumps, machine politics, and municipal reform 141
The Good Government movement 143
Beautiful cities and urban planning: from aesthetics to efficiency 145
State Level Reform 148
LaFollette and the Wisconsin Idea 148
Beyond Wisconsin 150
Businessmen Left Behind 151
The Radical Political Reaction 152
Socialists 152
Industrial Workers of the World 153
Labor Leans Political 155
Labor's Bill of Grievances 156
Workplace activism 160
Progressivism Takes Center Stage 161
4 The Shape of Things to Come: Progressivism and the Transition to Modern Life, 1912-1917 165
The Rise of Consumerism 165
Impact of the automobile 168
Corporate America Takes Control 170
Scientific management 171
Welfare capitalism 173
The Triangle Waist Factory Fire 174
The legacy of Triangle 176
The Election of 1912 178
Theodore Roosevelt and the Progressive Party platform 180
The incumbent: William Howard Taft 184
Eugene Debs and the Socialists 185
Woodrow Wilson and the Democratic platform 185
Wilson in the White House 186
The election of 1916 189
Progressivism in the National Consciousness 191
Conclusion: The Progressives' Progress 194
Bibliographical Essay 211
Index 247
