In Search of Progressivism

Abstract

For decades the notion that the political and intellectual ferment of the Roosevelt and Wilson years cohered into an entity called progressivism was one of the central organizing principles of American history. The search for progressivism —undertaken with implicit confidence that the expedition would reveal some typical progressive profile, coherent political agenda, or, at least, definable ethos—helped attract more historical talent to the first two decades of the twentieth century than to any other period of modern America. Progressivism shuffled through the 1970s as a corpse that would not lie down. Few historians seriously tried to get along without the term "progressivism" or "progressive movement. Progressive politics—fragmented, fluid, and issue-focused—was, in short, part of a major, lasting shift in the rules of the political game. Professional architects and engineers remapped cities in the Progressive years; professionally conscious educators revamped education; doctors reached out to put chaotic systems of sewage and water supply in order.

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