Progressive Era Politics Books
![](https://media1.shmoop.com/media/common/off-site01.gif)
This fictional account of three generations of Slovak immigrant workers in the steel mills of Braddock, Pennsylvania is based on the actual life experiences of author Thomas Bell (originally Belejcak).
![](https://media1.shmoop.com/media/common/off-site01.gif)
Dawley offers a comprehensive synthesis of Progressive history to date, and makes a compelling case for the broader historical significance of the period.
![](https://media1.shmoop.com/media/common/off-site01.gif)
Hofstadter, a brilliant synthesis historian who convincingly weaves together several secondary studies into compelling arguments, suggests psychological explanations for the Progressive movement. He attributes the middle-class support for reform to a widespread sense of status anxiety amidst the social upheaval of the industrial age.
![](https://media1.shmoop.com/media/common/off-site01.gif)
Kolko offers a new interpretation of Progressivism which focuses on the manner in which the movement was compromised or even co-opted by business interests, rather than the previous discussions of who constituted Progressives and what motivated them.
![](https://media1.shmoop.com/media/common/off-site01.gif)
Mowry was one of the first historians to challenge the glowing consensus on Progressivism (crafted by many Progressive historians) as a grass roots movement against special interests. He identifies some of the elitism behind certain Progressive groups, and uses this background to mount an explanation of their motives.
![](https://media1.shmoop.com/media/common/off-site01.gif)
Wiebe strikes a more moderate position between the old Progressive historians and the controversial revisions of Hofstadter and Mowry. He argues that middle-class reformers sought to impose order on a society they felt had become fragmented by rapid growth and enormous change.