20th Century Progressives’ View of America

Feb 15 2010


American Progressivism by Pestritto & Atto
Originally uploaded by morse code jewelry®

I mentioned in a previous post that I’m reading American Progressivism in an effort to understand what Hillary Clinton proclaimed that she, and so many others are: “early twentieth century progressive.”


After the introduction by the authors, and campaign speeches by T. Roosevelt & Woodrow Wilson, which brought me about 50+ pages in, my initial impressions are this:


Capitalism and capitalists are bad.
Class warfare as a campaign tactic is nothing new.
Understanding the power of the media and how politicians can subsume and subvert it for propaganda is also nothing new.


I don’t think I have ever read a book that had me scratching so many notes in the margins.  I’ll post some excerpts later, but for now, there’s ain’t a lot of “morning in America” in the vision of these characters.  Oh, they talk around it and give it some lip service, but the philosophies underpinning their policies are dark, and anti-individual rights.



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