UMass Amherst: University of Massachusetts Press

Book Jacket: "Progressivism and the New Democracy" edited by S.M. Milkis and J.M. Mileur

Edited by Sidney M. Milkis and Jerome M. Mileur

A provocative reappraisal of the legacy of Progressivism in modern American politics

The Progressive era has long been viewed as the seedbed of the modern American state, a time when a powerful reformist impulse reshaped the nation's political life in what some have called a "second founding." Driven by a belief in executive-centered government yet devoted to the ideal of participatory democracy, Progressives sought to create self-rule on a grand scale and break the hold of localist parties and courts that had dominated American politics for decades.

In this wide-ranging appraisal of the legacy of Progressivism, a distinguished group of political scientists and historians reconsiders the achievements and failures of the "new democracy." The essays explore the impact of Progressivism on domestic as well as foreign affairs, on the theory as well as the practice of American government and politics. Taken together, the pieces offer an original, interdisciplinary critique of modern American political development, one that challenges traditional interpretations of the pivotal first decades of the twentieth century.

In addition to editors Sidney M. Milkis and Jerome M. Mileur, the contributors are Martha Derthick, John J. Dinan, Eldon Eisenach, Philip J. Ethington, Alonzo L. Hamby, Morton Keller, Eileen L. McDonagh, and Wilson Carey McWilliams.

"For anybody interested in the Progressive era, this book is definitely a must read. Indeed, it should be required reading for all those who want to understand the problems and possibilities of contemporary American politics."

Richard J. Ellis, editor of Speaking to the People:
The Rhetorical Presidency in Historical Perspective
"An outstanding collections of essays. The comparison of the Progressive era to politics and society today and the analysis of the contours and enduring impact of the Progressive tradition are the most distinctive contributions of the book."

Margaret Weir, coeditor of The Politics of
Social Policy in the United States

Sidney M. Milkis is professor of politics at Brandeis University and author of The President and the Parties. For many years the editor of Polity, Jerome M. Mileur is professor of political science at the University of Massachusetts Amherst.

American History / Political Science
312 pp.
LC 99-19459
$50.00s library cloth edition, ISBN 1-55849-192-9
$24.95s paper, ISBN 1-55849-193-7
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A volume in the series Political Development of the American Nation: Studies in Politics and History

IN THE SAME SERIES

The Great Society and the High Tide of Liberalism
Edited by Sidney M. Milkis and Jerome M. Mileur
512 pp.
$27.95s paper, ISBN 1-55849-493-6
$80.00s library cloth edition, ISBN 1-55849-494-4
August 2005
For more information, click here.

The New Deal and the Triumph of Liberalism
Edited by Sidney M. Milkis and Jerome M. Mileur
344 pp.
$24.95s paper, ISBN 1-55849-321-2
2002
For more information, click here.

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