A Fierce Discontent: The Rise and Fall of the Progressive Movement in America, 1870-1920

Very thorough and readable, exciting book. It certainly covers the subject well.

In "A Fierce Discontent: The Rise and Fall of the Progressive Movement in America", Michael McGerr argues “that progressivism created much of our contemporary political predicament. The epic of reform at the dawn of the twentieth century helps explain the less-than-epic politics at the dawn of the twenty-first. Progressivism, the creed of a crusading middle class, offered the promise of utopianism – and generated the inevitable letdown of unrealistic expectations” (pg. xiv). He shifts the historiography to look “at four quintessential progressive battles: to change other people; to end class conflict; to control big business; and to segregate society” (pg. xv). While McGerr focuses on the usual historical actors, he also draws upon the experiences of Jane Addams and her parents, Russian immigrants Golub and Rahel, and the Garland family.McGerr ties the beginning of the Progressive Era to the Victorian middle class’ discontent with the upper class’ lavish lifestyle. He writes, “By the turn of the century, middle-class men and women, radicalized and resolute, were ready to sweep aside the upper ten and build a new, progressive America” (pg. 39). Alongside this conflict, “across Victorian America, women demanded new opportunities outside the home” (pg. 51). While the era witnessed many disparate conflicts, “the progressives, driven by their project to transform relations between men and women, end class conflict, and make the nation more middle-class, were almost always in the thick of the fighting” (pg. 79). McGerr demonstrates that progressives’ utopian idealism did not extend to race relations. He writes, “There were limits to the progressives’ optimistic faith in transforming other people. Segregation revealed both a sense of realism and an underlying pessimism in the middle class. Even as they labored urgently to end the differences between classes, the progressives felt some social differences would not be erased for many years. And some differences, they believed, could not be erased at all” (pg. 183). This led to an acceptance of Southern Jim Crow segregation and Northern segregation. McGerr traces the decline of progressivism to new entertainments and pleasure-seeking activities in the early 1900s (pg. 260) coupled with the Red Scare (pg. 306) and the “reemergence of political conservatism after years of defeat and demoralization” in the 1920 election (pg. 310). In his conclusion, McGerr argues that the failure of progressivism limited policies that appeared to take similar approaches, such as the New Deal or the Great Society."A Fierce Discontent" draws upon social, political, and economic history and resembles Eric Foner’s Recontruction in that it primarily synthesizes much of the previous research on the subject while offering a new perspective through his use of vignettes, like that of Rahel Golub, that differ from the usual top-down approach to the Progressive Era.

Well written, tons of info relevant to how, politically, we got where we are today.

In graduate school in the early 1970s I read several articles skeptical of progressivism as a valid description on the early 20th century. Wish I had this book then! The first chapter alone--on the extremes of wealth and poverty--is worth the price of the entire book. A must read! Very useful for teachers in search of anecdotes to spice lectures and discussions

This is a fascinating book, a great perspective on a period of American history about which I knew little. Reading this book really extended my appreciation for the issues and struggles that have been part of our country for so long. My only critique of the book is that it could benefit from some editing and reorganization that would result in a more streamlined presentation and compelling storyline. However, having said this, I still highly recommend the book. It is most definitely worth reading.

Hard to read. long and drawn out much like the history it tells of. Served its purpose now on to the next student

Great book for anyone wants to learn more about the Progressive Era.

Although this is congenialy written in a no nonsense yet intellectually stimulating fashion, it is so wide-ranging as to belie the supposed focus of the book. Each large chapter usually introduces a theme, but as with the overarching theme of the tension between individualism and collectivism, it embraces such a host of developments that what exactly constitutes Progressivism becomes rather hazy. Perhaps it could be said that this is because Progressivism itself embodied a large swathe of individuals, movements, and goals, as it obviously did. But at the end of the day, A Fierce Discontent serves more as a survey of this period in American history than it does as an analysis of the movement.