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PROGRESSIVE INTELLECTUAL TRADITION: Halpin and Williams' "The Progressive Intellectual Tradition in America" deals with the "philosophical and theoretical development of progressivism as a response to the rise of industrial capitalism in the late 19th and early 20th centuries." "Progressivism as an intellectual movement emerged between 1890 and 1920" -- known as the "Progressive Era" -- as a response to the rapid economic changes associated with the Industrial Revolution. Reformist intellectuals, concerned with the increased concentration of wealth, unsafe working conditions, political corruption, and the misuse of natural resources, laid out the philosophical basis for tangible reforms. Progressives reformed the political system by expanding suffrage and instituting direct senatorial and primary elections; to the economy they brought the graduated income tax, the right to organize, unemployment insurance, and food and drug safety laws. Reformers began to demand "that Americans consider whether the consequences of their economic and political institutions were consistent with American notions of equal treatment and justice." Herbert Croly embodied these concerns with his 1909 book The Promise of American Life, in which he called for a strong state to counteract the power of concentrated wealth. Progressive Era thinkers went on to denounce the "static, conservative interpretation of the Constitution...as retrograde and insufficient for the modern age," preferring to look at the document instead as a vehicle for the "realization of democracy" that would allow for progressive reforms. This view was adopted by Supreme Court Justice Louis Brandeis, who, in his famous essay "The Living Law," argued that the meaning of the Constitution had shifted as our democracy "deepened." Brandeis wrote that courts could not be "deaf and blind" to "newly arisen social needs" and laid out the legal basis for an expansive welfare state. The notion of unbending literalism in interpreting the Constitution was anathema to progressive intellectuals just as it was to Thomas Jefferson when he said in 1816, "Laws and institutions most go hand in hand with the progress of the human mind." Altogether, progressivism "paved the way toward the midcentury 'mixed economy' that lifted living standards for millions of people, reduced poverty and inequality, and helped to create the vast American middle class."
PROGRESSIVE TRADITION IN AMERICAN POLITICS: In "The Progressive Tradition in American Politics," Teixeira and Halpin detail the expression of progressivism "both within and outside the major political parties, beginning with the early protest movements of the populists and other third party insurgencies to the transformative candidacies of William Jennings Bryan, Theodore Roosevelt, Woodrow Wilson, and Franklin Roosevelt." In the late 1890s, Americans were increasingly restless over the poor state of the economy for most of the country's citizens. Dissatisfied farmers formed the new Populist Party to address these concerns. The party promoted ideas such as an eight-hour workday and direct election of senators, both of which were eventually adopted by major parties. In 1892, the Populist Party won eight percent of the national popular vote and carried five states, an impressive showing for a third party in American politics. After the assassination of President William McKinley, Teddy Roosevelt came to office and began implementing sweeping progressive reforms and fighting against monopolistic corporate practices. During a 1902 United Mineworkers strike, he threatened to seize the mines if employers did not agree to impartial arbitration, which won the workers a nine-hour day and 10 percent wage increase. During his tenure, Roosevelt went on to expand federal inspection of the meatpacking industry, regulate railroads as a "trustbuster," and "vastly" expand the national forest system. Roosevelt was followed by Republican William Howard Taft, who faced the ire of progressives within his own party and eventually faced a strong challenge from Roosevelt, who ran as the nominee of the newly formed Progressive Party. During Democrat Woodrow Wilson's tenure, the income tax and direct election of senators were approved, and the great progressive Justice Louis Brandeis was confirmed to the Supreme Court. Then, World War I brought with it police suppression of civil liberties and nativist hysteria, and the decline of progressives in American politics. Yet by 1932, with the nation mired in Great Depression and reeling from a 24 percent unemployment rate, progressive Democrat Franklin Delano Roosevelt was elected by a coalition that included blue-collar workers, urban Catholics, blacks, Jews, and white Southerners that later came to be known as the New Deal coalition. With the support of this coalition -- and pressure from liberal politicians and activists like Huey Long and Francis Townsend -- FDR successfully enacted the New Deal, a set of tough financial regulations like the Glass-Steagall Act, and social programs, like Social Security, that, along with the military build-up around World War II, eventually pulled the country out of the Depression and created decades of prosperity in which income inequality was at a record low. Shortly before his death, FDR laid out "Four Freedoms" that enshrined the progressive promise: freedom of speech and expression, freedom of worship, freedom from want, and freedom from fear. The two decades following the death of President Roosevelt saw governments that continued progressive achievements. In the 1960s, Democrat Lyndon Johnson championed reforms as a part of his "Great Society" programs and passed Medicare, the universal single-payer health care system for the elderly. Prodded by the civil rights movement, Congress passed the Civil Rights Act in 1964 and the Voting Rights Act in 1965, making it the federal government's responsibility to ensure the rights of racial minorities. Unfortunately, an unpopular war in Vietnam and southern resistance to civil rights measures fractured the New Deal coalition, led LBJ to decline running for a second term, and saw the rise of Republican Richard Nixon and an overwhelming defeat for progressive Democrat George McGovern in the 1972 presidential election. By 1980, right-wing Republican Ronald Reagan won the presidency, solidifying center-right control of the government for decades. Yet this does not change the fact that in the years before Reagan's victory, progressives had built a government that had enhanced human freedom and expanded social justice dramatically.
PROGRESSIVE SOCIAL MOVEMENTS: As the late historian Howard Zinn once said, real change in our country works "its way from the bottom up, from the people themselves. That's how change happens." It is this spirit that animates Cook and Halpin's "Social Movements and Progressivism." Throughout our history, progressivism has been built on "a vibrant grassroots foundation, from the Social Gospel and labor movements to women's suffrage and civil rights to environmentalism, antiwar activism, and gay rights." There are two major strains of progressive social movements in the United States: movements for equality and individual rights, and movements for economic justice. The first of these movements finds its roots in abolitionism. Americans who opposed slavery used a variety of tactics to further their cause. William Lloyd Garrison co-founded the American Anti-Slavery Society and the newspaper The Liberator. The freed slave Frederick Douglass wrote an autobiography to explain the slave experience. Religious organizations used their church pulpits and religious writings to attack the institution of slavery. "The moral and political activism of the abolitionists" seemed to embolden Abraham Lincoln's resolve to abolish slavery during the Civil War. In the early 19th century, women began organizing to demand the same rights as men. Starting with the Seneca Falls Convention in 1848, feminists laid out platforms that included full voting rights and legal equality for women, drawing on the moral promise of the Declaration of Independence. By 1920, the movement won women's suffrage with the passage of the 19th Amendment. The women's movement continued on through organizations like the National Organization of Women in the 20th century to successfully win social and legislative battles over marriage and divorce rights, sexual freedom, and workplace equality. The civil rights movement can be traced back t 1909 with the founding of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), which mobilized throughout the 20th century for the cause of racial justice, but reached its peak activism in the 1960s. During that decade, African Americans and their allies in other communities took aim at racial segregation, voter intimidation, and legal racism in the South, and engaged in a massive campaign of civil disobedience that included sit-ins, marches, and boycotts that resulted in Congress passing the Civil Rights and Voting Rights Acts. The Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. was the most famous of these civil rights demonstrators, and eventually expanded his activism to other issues he saw as essential to achieving social justice: ending reckless militarism and building a just economy for all, and spent his last days supporting striking sanitation workers in Memphis, TN. Movements for economic justice expressed themselves through the labor movement starting in the late 19th century. By the mid-1880s the Knights of Labor, the country's first major national union, reached a membership of 750,000; for the next half-century, workers continued to organize in greater numbers, regularly using the power of organized labor and strikes to achieve better working conditions, pay, and benefits. Being a union organizer was often dangerous, with labor leaders regularly intimidated by big businesses and their government allies. One particularly violent confrontation between mining families and coal operators in Ludlow, CO, led to the killing of eighteen men, women, and children by the Colorado National Guard. By the time of FDR's tenure, the environment changed drastically. When striking autoworkers in Flint, MI, in 1936 took over the General Motors factory there to demand fair wages and conditions, the company and allied police officers attacked workers. Michigan's Governor and President Roosevelt sent in the National Guard to prevent violence, but refused to use them against the striking workers, who went on to win their labor battle. By the end of World War II, labor represented 36 percent of the American workforce. Unfortunately, the proliferation of anti-labor laws, the changing workplace, the failure of unions to properly globalize, and other factors have resulted in only 12.3 percent of American workers belonging to a union in 2009. Regardless, the positive legacy of the American labor movement continues to affect us all by its long list of achievements, like the eight-hour workday, the weekend, and health benefits at work.
There is nothing civil about civil wars!
