With Good Intentions? Reflections on the Myth of Progress in America

Kauffman's perspective on progress in America--from the point of view of those who lost--revives forgotten figures and reinvigorates dormant causes as he examines the characters and arguments from six critical battles that forever altered the American landscape: the debates over child labor, school consolidation, women's suffrage, the back-to-the-land movement, "good roads" and the Interstate Highway System, and a standing army. The integration of these subjects and the presentation of the anti-Progress case as a coherent political tendency encompassing several issues and many years is unprecedented. With wit, passion, and an arsenal of long-neglected sources, Kauffman measures the cost of progress in 20th century America and exposes the elaborate plans behind seemingly "inevitable" reforms.