Order and Control in American Socio-Economic Thought: Social Scientists and Progressive-Era Reform

The Progressive Era in the United States, lasting from about 1890 to 1925, was a period of tremendous social, economic, and political change. Labor unrest, political turmoil, economic crises, and societal disintegration threatened the stability of the capitalist system and the integrity of the democratic political structure. The previous reliance on decentralized political authority and a belief in the self-correcting market was challenged by a new social philosophy which was focused on the need for social control. It was through a desire to realize such a structured society that policies such as social welfare provision, antitrust legislation, labor protection, immigration restrictions, eugenic control, sociological jurisprudence, environmental management, and political centralization were developed and promoted. This book presents the development of the American Progressive philosophy through an examination of the works of six seminal thinkers '¬ ; Lester Frank Ward, Edward Alsworth Ross, Charles Horton Cooley, Richard Theodore Ely, Henry Carter Adams, and John Dewey. This analysis of, and comparison between, the work of these six writers allows us to chart the foundation and development of the philosophy of Progressivism, and therefore to understand the ideas that altered the very nature of the American social system, the impact of which still resonates today.