The Paradox of Progressive Thought

Abstract

PROGRESS, for the average American of the nineteenth century, was a law whose validity was beyond doubt. During the first decade and a half of the next-our present-century, this deep-rooted affirmation reached a high point of intensity, calling forth an emotional and intellectual enthusiasm that has indelibly labeled these years as the Progressive Era. Then, suddenly and without warning, the tragedy of World War I burst upon this generation and amidst the smoke of battle, the Progressive Era vanished. Seldom, if ever, has there been such a sharp and clear division of periods in American history as there was between that of the Progressive Era and that which succeeded it. Americans continued and have continued to believe in progress but the assurance, the certainty, and the close identification of this idea with a total moral reawakening have gradually receded. An explanation for the decline of the idea of progress in our time has not been difficult to suggest. For Americans, the nineteenth century was in general a continuation of previous centuries based on a pattern of life basically agrarian. When industrialism first impinged upon this situation, it did not call up the picture of complex and difficult problems; rather it presented vistas of untold progress. It was only later, in the twentieth century, when industrialism and urbanism had reached epoch proportions that the curtain of promises was lifted somewhat to reveal the specter of inescapable problems lurking backstage. The simplicity of conditions that had fostered faith in progress had disappeared and with their disappearance went the naive belief in the inevitability of progress. When thinking of this process by which Americans were divested of their innocence