CHANGING THE WORLD: American Progressives in War and Revolution

In this sprawling, ambitious work, Dawley, a professor of history at the College of New Jersey, expertly places the history of American progressives' quest for peace and social justice before, during and after WWI in an international context. While examining a subject as vast as progressivism precluded Dawley from delving too deeply into any one aspect of the movement, interested readers will surely find this a useful and unique synthesis of social and political history. In clean, well-paced prose, Dawley sets the successes—and the failures—of early American progressives, including Jane Addams and Robert La Follette, against the backdrop of a complicated postwar world in which "sleeping giants" had awakened in China, Russia and Mexico; where social mores and sexual values were rapidly changing; and where laborers, women and people of various ethnicities were beginning the struggle for their rights in earnest. Especially noteworthy is Dawley's treatment of the nascent League of Nations and Woodrow Wilson's famous 14 Points, delivered in 1918, which Dawley declares a "stunning manifesto" and an "extraordinary gesture... that resonated with the best in American history." Although at times an exhausting read, if simply for the sheer breadth of progressive history worldwide, Dawley, winner of the prestigious Bancroft Prize in history for his 1977 book Class and Community, succeeds in his quest to trace to common philosophical roots an array of thinkers, writers, politicians, national movements, revolutions, leaders and their causes: "winning social and economic justice, revitalizing public life, and improving the wider world." This is an especially timely book, given the tense state of world affairs. 10 b&w photos. (Apr.)