Desperately Seeking the Progressives
A Fierce Discontent: The Rise and Fall of the Progressive Movement in America, 1870-1920
by Michael McGerr
Review by: Maureen A. Flanagan
The Journal of the Gilded Age and Progressive Era, Vol. 4, No. 2 (Apr., 2005), pp. 215-218
Published by: Society for Historians of the Gilded Age & Progressive Era
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Reviews
Book
Desperately
Seeking
the Progressives
A Fierce Discontent: The Rise and Fall of the Progressive
MICHAEL.
McGERR,
1870-1920. New York: The Free Press, 2003. xvi +
Movement inAmerica,
395 pp. Preface,
and index. $30 (cloth), ISBN 0-684-85975-0.
notes,
and
For fifty years now, historians have sought to identify the progressives
some historians
to define their motives
and goals. While
describe ethnic,
as
at least
and
Glenda
Gilmore
reformers,
groups
working-class
progressive
sees southern African
as progressives
often viewed as white,
to reform
male?seeking
Americans
are most
nity, progressives
seeking political opportu
native-born
middle-class,
society to conform with
Americans?generally
norms.1 A Fierce Discontent fits squarely
their middle-class
tive
scheme.
casts his investigation
into three parts, McGerr
around
E.A. Ross,
Roosevelt,
figures such as Jane Addams, Theodore
ones such as economist
Simon
and
lesser-known
Patten, to
Dodge,
his book
Dividing
well-known
Mabel
claim
that
gressives"
and
into this interpre
these
were
pleasure."
the
They
were
cultural
progressives:
formulated
who
"new views
united,
according
of
"Victorians"
become
the individual,
to McGerr,
society,
in
their
"pro
gender,
desire
"to
to remake the nation's feuding
other Americans,
polyglot popula
tion in their own middle
class image," and "end class conflict and create a
and their children"
safe society for themselves
(xiv, 64). Here one hears
are
these "Victorians"
turned "Progressives"
echoes of Richard Hofstadter:
transform
driven by cultural
To accomplish
sential batdes:"
ideas derived
from their social status.
their new
to change
"four quintes
society, the progressives
waged
to
other people;
end class conflict; to control big
Urban Uberalism
and Progressive Reform (New York,
1973); James Connolly,
!John Buenker,
in Boston,
1900-1925
The Triumph of Ethnic Progressivism: Urban Political Culture
(Cambridge,
Gender and Jim Crow: Women and the Politics of White Suprem
MA,
Gilmore,
1998); and Glenda
1896-1920
of the middle-class
Carolina,
1996). The bibliography
(Chapel Hill,
to readers of this
of the Progressive
Era is voluminous
and well-known
interpretation
jour
out here is the
nal. The
aspect of it to be pointed
difficulty with defining what
significant
constituted
the middle
class. The variations
old middle
class, to
range from status-seeking
acy inNorth
order-seeking
to educated
Johnston's
Era Portland
new
middle
middle-class
class, to efficiency-minded
businessmen,
professional
to the more
of Robert
classes"
middle-class
women,
encompassing
"middling
in Progressive
The Radical Middle Class: Populist Democracy and theQuestion
of Capitalism
Oregon
(Princeton,
2003).
Journal of theGildedAge and ProgressiveEra 4:2 (April 2005)
216
Journal of theGildedAge and ProgressiveEra / April 2005
to segregate society (xv). The desire to
replace individualism with
to
create Utopia" guided all
and
"transform
and
association,
thereby
people
four battles (xvi). McGerr
that this attempt to refashion Ameri
concludes
can society largely failed, and as a result, "set boundaries
around the aspira
business;
of all subsequent political movements
and its
(xvi). "Progressivism"
to reform Americans,
to
are
determination
McGerr,
according
for subsequent political failures of the twentieth century.
responsible
tions"
middle-class
A
Fierce Discontent
situates
these progressives
as the "radical
center"
of
the
sweeping changes, but occupying
society: radical in wanting
center ground between
the individualistic upper classes, especially big busi
class and its flirtation with
nessmen, who opposed
change, and the working
of middle-class
socialism. This is not a startlingly new interpretation
pro
McGerr
reformers,
yet
gressive
explicitly
rejects James Kloppenberg's
American
as a search for the via media between
analysis of progressivism
and socialism, preferring
to see "that
a more
laissez-faire
individualism, while clearly linked to
role in the transformation
of middle
laissez-faire, played
catalytic
to acknowledge
class ideology" (341, n. 55).2 This analysis forces McGerr
the
four
of
reform
each
which
is examined
battles,
recurring paradox:
a
in
Part Two, condemned
individualism
desire
yet were rooted in a profound
"In response to the rich," he contends,
for individual autonomy.
"the pro
individualism. But individualism was central to mid
condemned
gressives
women's
dle-class
rebellion
He
(71).
domesticity"
against
to
attempts
re
the paradox by asserting that "younger activist women"
spoke less
about individual rights and "more about the maternal
female role in making
are
'the whole world Homelike'"
there
many examples to the con
(71). But,
solve
that women
trary
this
assertion
across
reformers
does
not
account
the
for
search for political power,
gressives'
in this book.4
from discussion
Every
issue inA Fierce Discontent
individualism
per-class
tion versus
suffrage
both
movement
of which
about
or
both.3
And
female
pro
are singularly missing
is cast in these sorts of dichotomies:
versus middle-class
working-class
spoke
generations
the
mutualism;
association;
middle-class
segregation/inequality
versus
up
associa
com
in European
Uncertain Victory:
and
Social Democracy
and Progressivism
panies
Kloppenberg,
American
(New York,
1986).
Thought, 1870-1920
see Maureen
3For examples,
A. Flanagan,
Seeing with Their Hearts: Chicago Women and theVi
Woman Suffrage and
sion of the Good City, 1871-1933
Graham,
(Princeton,
2002); Sara Hunter
theNew
Reform,
Democracy
1890-1935
(New Haven,
(New York,
1996); Robyn
1991); Daphne
a Female Dominion
inAmerican
Creating
How
Women
Saved the City (Minneapolis,
Spain,
Muncy,
2001).
4See Elisabeth
Israels Perry, "Men Are from the Gilded
Are from the Pro
Age, Women
1 (January 2002): 25-48 for a critique
gressive Era," Journal of the Gilded Age and Progressive Era
to consider women
of the failure of many historians
and power as a fundamental
part of the
Era.
Progressive
Book Reviews
217
and inclusion versus exclusion. There are no grey
plete integration/equality;
areas here, no sites of contestation
in which
individuals and groups must
It is worth considering whether
this em
and compromise.
meet, negotiate,
on dualism and paradox is too narrow a conceptualization
of
the era,
phasis
its upheaval, its competing
ideas, and the range of people engaged in reform
movements.
ideas in De
analysis of Jane Addams'
example, McGerr's
mocracy and Social Ethics (53-59, 65-67) fails to capture her subde argument
simi
about balancing the rights of individuals with a public good.5 McGerr
larly views the movement
against child labor as serving "the progressives'
For
transformative
purpose.
. .to make
sure
were
children
out
of work,
off
the
streets, in school, and under control" (108) without
considering progressive
concern
to attend school, children would be
that without
the opportunity
or whether
these same reformers were
of future opportunity,
deprived
obviate
the need for children to
for
that
would
workers'
help
fighting
rights
is
work. The analysis of race in Chapter Six, "The Shield of Segregation,"
also troubling. Relying heavily on southern
in and fostered
racial
believed
gressives
examples
he concludes
that pro
one
reasonably
segregation. No
Era was a lost opportunity
for resolving racial
that the Progressive
to ameliorate racial ten
conflict. Specific individuals and groups attempted
sions and cross racial lines but largely lacked either the courage or the firm
doubts
in racial equality that would have been necessary
this mean that "progressives
alized segregation. Does
belief
as a way
to thwart institution
turned to segregation
that could not otherwise
be
to halt
social conflict
dangerous
as a mechanism
The
of
argument regarding segregation
(183)?
stopped"
social control extends to the era's political reforms even though McGerr
of World War I and
little attention to politics until the discussion
devotes
Still, the book contests recent work arguing for
of the era, claiming instead that politi
"democratic"
understanding
to segregate the
cal reforms were proof of the progressives'
"willingness
out of the batde against
ballot box and thereby keep so many Americans
the Red Scare in Part Three.
a more
(216, 363 n.58).6
privilege"
For those who
continue
class
to exercise
seem
wishing
as the middle
to see the "progressives"
cultural interpretation will
social control, McGerr's
so many of the secondary works
that he
plausible. It is not by chance that
in them. For those who see these
draws from have this analysis embedded
decades
as more
dynamic,
as
perhaps
a contestation
over
the
nature
of
de
in Democracy
and Social Ethics,
Amelioration,"
ed., Charlene
essay, "Industrial
(Urbana, 2002): esp. 63-65 and 74.
Seigfried,
the Progressive
Era: The
6See the discussion
in, Robert D. Johnston,
"Re-Democratizing
of Progressive
and Progressive
Politics
Era Political Historiography,"
Journal of the Gilded Age
Era 1 (January 2002): 68-92.
5See her
Haddock
218
Journal of theGildedAge and ProgressiveEra / April 2005
an assessment
for which
mocracy
this analysis,
largely here,
of politics
although
cannot
thought-provoking,
Maureen
A. Flanagan
State University
Michigan
The Catholic
Church
as it is
be neglected
will not suffice.
and New England
City Politics
Ballots and Bibles: Ethnic Politics and the
EVELYN
SAVIDGE.
STEME,
Catholic Church in Providence. Ithaca: Cornell University
Press, 2004. xiii +256
and
index.
notes,
$34.95
pp. Introduction,
(cloth), ISBN 0
photographs,
8014-4117-X.
S. Sterne's historical
analysis of the interaction between
Evelyn
religion
in Providence,
and politics
Rhode
Island, is particularly timely, given that
the November
2004 election results have renewed debates about the impact
of religion
canization
on voting trends. Moreover,
I resonates
during World War
and values
efforts
her chapter on Ameri
concerns
over the
with
between civil liberties and national security that have emerged since
Like
social historians writing
about politics
9/11.
many
recently, she has
to encompass
the
of
broadened
traditional definition
political involvement
as well as
the activities of parishes,
labor unions and civic organizations,
balance
ethnic
festivals,
celebrations
and
Providence
controversies.
case
1905
it had
serves
as
a
par
a Catholic
study. By
majority
ticularly interesting
arising
from the growing presence of several ethnic groups?particularly
Irish, Ital
ian, and French-Canadians,
many of them poor. At the same time, the city
limited voting rights to property owners and did so until late 1920s. There
fore, well
into the twentieth
effectively
disenfranchised
century,
remained
large numbers of Catholics
their
lack
of citi
their economic
status,
through
or
sex.
Sterne
demonstrates
how Catholics
status,
by
zenship
consequently
channeled
their political and civic involvement
through their parishes rather
than through the ballot. Tensions
seemed to arise within ethnic or national
as often
parishes
shared Catholicism
restrictions were
as across
ethnic lines, but a true solidarity based on
not
did
emerge until after 1928, when property-holding
lifted in a campaign known as the "Bloodless Revolution."
a