The Promise of American Life / Herbert Croly; Arthur M. Schlesinger, Jr.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Croly, Herbert, author.

Contributor:

Schlesinger, Jr., Arthur M., editor.

Series:

John Harvard Library

The John Harvard Library

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Political science--United States--History.

Progressivism (United States politics).

United States--Politics and government.

United States--Social conditions.

Local Subjects:

Political science--United States--History.

Progressivism (United States politics).

United States--Politics and government.

United States--Social conditions.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (495 p.)

Edition:

Reprint 2014

Place of Publication:

Cambridge, MA : Harvard University Press, [2014]

Language Note:

English

Summary:

The Promise of American Life was first published in 1909. It had an immediate and extensive influence on what social historians call the Progressive Era. At the dawn of the New Deal Era, Felix Frankfurter wrote that Croly's book became "a reservoir for all political writings after its publication. Roosevelt's New Nationalism was countered by Wilson's New Freedom, but both derived from Croly." While this may have been hyperbole, it is also a reflection of the impact The Promise made on intellectuals coming of age in the days of doubt and hope just before the Fust World War. Arthur Schlesinger Jr., calls this book "a substantive and sensitive essay on the American political experience, worth examination not just for historical reasons but on its continuing merits as a diagnosis of the American condition." Croly himself summarizes the work thus: "From the beginning the land of democracy has been figured as the land of promise. The American's loyalty to the national tradition rather affirms than denies the imaginative projection of a better future." Croly's book can be viewed as both an affirmation and critique of how the idea of progress works its way out in American life. And reading it at the end of the century only reaffirms one's sense of appreciation of the American tradition as a whole. The technology and science may be different, but the themes covered by Croly show an astonishing continuity of value issues: American Democracy and National Principles, Reform and Reaction; Federalists and Republicans, Nationalism and Internationalism; and the Individual and the National Purpose. All of these themes are central to Croly and remain so to this day. The new, forty-page introduction by Scott R. Bowman, brings the story of The Promise up to date. But it may be studied with a critical eye to the social maladies confronting Americans as a new century approaches.

Contents:

Frontmatter

INTRODUCTION

CONTENTS

CHAPTER I. WHAT IS THE PROMISE OP AMERICAN LIFE?

CHAPTER II. THE FEDERALISTS AND THE REPUBLICANS

CHAPTER III. THE DEMOCRATS AND THE WHIGS

CHAPTER IV. SLAVERY AND AMERICAN NATIONALITY

CHAPTER VI. THE CONTEMPORARY SITUATION AND ITS PROBLEMS

CHAPTER VI. REFORM AND THE REFORMERS

CHAPTER VII. RECONSTRUCTION; ITS CONDITIONS AND PURPOSES

CHAPTER VIII. NATIONALITY AND DEMOCRACY; NATIONAL ORIGINS

CHAPTER IX. THE AMERICAN DEMOCRACY AND ITS NATIONAL PRINCIPLE

CHAPTER Χ. A NATIONAL FOREIGN POLICY

CHAPTER XI. PROBLEMS OF RECONSTRUCTION

CHAPTER XII. PROBLEMS OF RECONSTRUCTION - (continued)

CHAPTER XIII. CONCLUSIONS - THE INDIVIDUAL AND THE NATIONAL PURPOSES

INDEX

Backmatter

Notes:

Bibliographic Level Mode of Issuance: Monograph

Description based on online resource; title from PDF title page (publisher's Web site, viewed 23. Mai 2019)

ISBN:

0-674-18940-X

OCLC:

1013943744