America Transformed: The Rise and Legacy of American Progressivism

by Ronald J Pestritto

The America of the modern administrative state is not the America of the original Constitution. This transformation comes not only from the ordinary course of historical change and development, but also from a radical, new philosophy of government that was imported into the American political tradition by the Progressives of the late nineteenth century. The new thinking about the principles of government―and open hostility to the American Constitution―led to a host of concrete changes in American political institutions. Our government today reflects these original Progressive innovations, even if they are often unrecognized as such because they have become ingrained in American political culture. This book shows the nature of these changes, both in principles and in the nuts and bolts of governing. It also shows how progressivism was often at the root of critical developments subsequent to the Progressive Era in more recent American political history ― how it was different than the New Deal, the liberalism of the 1960s, and today’s liberalism, but also how these subsequent developments could not have transpired without the ground laid by the original Progressives.

Genres: History

296 pages, Hardcover

First published June 8, 2021

Reviews

[Mike · Rating 5 out of 5]

Pestritto convincingly argues that Progressives such as Woodrow Wilson, Theodore Roosevelt, and John Dewey rejected the principles that animated the American Founding and instead posited a wholly different understanding of politics. Influenced by Georg Hegel and professors heavily influenced by German state theory, the Progressives worked to undo the separation of powers and other barriers the Constitution had put in place to check the prospects of majority faction while at the same time empowering so-called experts to rule in bureaucracies that were sealed off from electoral control. The manifold problems in U.S. politics today -- the problem, above all, of two regimes vying to be preeminent in a single nation -- is do to the project Progressives set in motion more than 100 years ago.

[Luke Marusiak · Rating 3 out of 5]

Detailed History of how the Administrative State corrupted Founder's principles.

A well researched and documented history of how progressivism and the administrative state uses delegation to agencies to circumvent legislative functions. These agencies also combine executive functions while themselves adjudicating any appeal or challenge. And ... these agencies are immune from political accountability. Disturbing to digest, the author could use a bit of righteous indignation after clearly making his points!