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The Age of Reform
''The Age of Reform'' is a 1955 Pulitzer Prize-winning book by Richard Hofstadter. It is an American history that traces events from the Populist Movement of the 1890s through the Progressive Era ending with the New Deal in the 1930s. ''The Age of Reform'' stands out from other historical material because Hofstadter's main purpose for writing is not to retell an extensive history of the three movements, but to analyze the common beliefs of the reform groups in our modern perspective to elucidate historical distortions, most notably between the New Deal and Progressivism.
==Contents==
Hofstadter organizes The Age Of Reform chronologically, beginning with Populism. The key concept he introduces is "the agrarian myth," which is the representation of the homage Americans have paid to the subsistent, innocent, and yeoman farmer of old. The myth became a stereotype since agriculture became more commercial and industrial. Populism's main cause for formation was the alleged loss of "free land." Many Populist leaders believed that industry and government had a vendetta to destroy the agricultural business. The last chapter on Populism explains the agricultural prosperity after the Populist revolt because city migration lessened competition which caused farmers to organize for the first time. Hofstadter highlights the foibles in the Populist revolt. The first was its sectional appeal, rather than national. Secondly, he argues its leaders were incompetent and that there was a perennial lack of funds. However, the single most destructive weakness was lack of silver. By joining with the Democratic campaign of 1896 on silver, Populists lost political ground. Despite their dissolution, Populists were successful because criticism they voiced caused the passage of new laws years later.
The next major reform movement was Progressivism. The two groups of Populism and Progressivism shared many philosophies, yet the latter was widely accepted because it was not seen by the majority as anarchical. The causes for Progressivism were the status revolution in the post-Civil War era ("new money" supplanted "old money" prestige), the alienation of professionals, and the introduction of the Mugwump. The urban scene during the Progressive era, as argued by Hofstadter, provided little support for the Progressive movement because immigrants cared not for reforms, but for democracy in general. From this point of view, Hofstadter provides evidence from numerous sources of the general nativism possessed by Progressives. As a corollary of the growing urban scene, aggressive newspaper reporters, named muckrakers, emerged. These Progressive journalists multiplied as new styles of magazines appeared. The last chapter focused on enemies of Progressives like trusts, unions, and political machines. Leaders expressed the need for entrepreneurship, individualism, and moral responsibility, rather than organization.
''The Age of Reform''s final section stretches from Progressivism's end through the New Deal. Reformations have an interesting relationship with wars in that the aftermath of war is usually a time of conservatism. Such was the case after World War I, which heralded the death of Progressivism. The New Deal was a culmination of both Populism and Progressivism; however, Hofstadter stresses that for the most part, the New Deal was a "new departure", and despite its continual association with Progressivism, it was quite dissimilar. The reason why it was different is because the New Deal was born out of the Great Depression, not prosperity like Populism and Progressivism. Hofstadter expounds on the New Deal's characteristics; the New Deal was not concerned with democratizing the economy, but managing it to meet the problems of the people. The New Deal had no set plans of reform; it was a chaotic experiment. Old Progressive woes were ignored. Party bosses were left alone. The New Deal did not intercede between the public and big business because the public wanted economic restoration, not regulation. A major disparity between Progressivism and the New Deal was that the latter was not based on Protestant morality and responsibility, but was instead more pragmatic. The latter reform movement did not use moral rhetoric to create changes, but instead, physically acted.
抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』
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