num_pages: 289
description: A comprehensive study of the Progressive movement,  Reinventing "The People" contends that the persistence of class conflict in America challenged the very defining feature of its promise of social harmony through democratic renewal.  Shelton Stromquist profiles the movement's work in diverse arenas of social reform, politics, labor regulation and so-called race improvement. While these reformers emphasized different programs, they crafted a common language of social reconciliation in which an imagined civic community--"the People"--would transcend parochial class and political loyalties. But efforts to invent a society without enduring class lines marginalized new immigrants and African Americans by declaring them unprepared for civic responsibilities. In so doing, Progressives laid the foundation for twentieth-century liberals' inability to see their world in class terms and to conceive of social remedies that might alter the structures of class power.
language: English
title: Reinventing "The People": The Progressive Movement, the Class Problem, and the Origins of Modern Liberalism
titlecomplete: Reinventing "The People": The Progressive Movement, the Class Problem, and the Origins of Modern Liberalism (Working Class in American History)
genres: Labor
ratings_count: 20
series: The Working Class in American History
publisher: University of Illinois Press