American History: A Survey (Brinkley), 13th Edition

Chapter 20: THE PROGRESSIVES

America in the World

Social Democracy

Enormous energy, enthusiasm, and organization drove the reform efforts in America in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, much of it a result of social crises and political movements in the United States. But the "age of reform," as some scholars have called it, was not an American phenomenon alone. It was part of a wave of social experimentation that was occurring through much of the industrial world. "Progressivism" in other countries influenced the social movements in the United States. And American reform, in turn, had significant influence on other countries as well.

Several industrializing nations adopted the term "progressivism" for their efforts—not only the United States, but also England, Germany, and France. But the term that most broadly defined the new reform energies was "social democracy." Social democrats in many countries shared a belief in the betterment of society through the accumulation of knowledge—rather than through reliance on inherited ideology or faith. They favored improving the social condition of all people through reforms of the economy and government programs of social protection. And they believed that these changes could come through peaceful political change, rather than through radicalism or revolution. Political parties emerged in several countries committed to these goals: the Labour Party in Britain, Social Democratic parties in various European nations, and the short-lived Progressive Party in the United States. Intellectuals, academics, and government officials across the world shared the knowledge they were accumulating and observed one another's social programs.

American reformers at the turn of the century spent much time visiting Germany, France, Britain, Belgium, and the Netherlands, observing the reforms in progress there, and Europeans visited the United States in turn. Reformers from both America and Europe were also fascinated by the advanced social experiments in Australia and, especially, New Zealand—which the American reformer Henry Demarest Lloyd once called "the political brain of the modern world." But New Zealand's dramatic experiments in factory regulation, woman suffrage, old-age pensions, progressive taxation, and labor arbitration gradually found counterparts in many other nations as well. William Allen White, a progressive journalist from Kansas, said of this time: "We were parts of one another, in the United States and Europe. Something was welding us into one social and economic whole with local political variations . . . [all] fighting a common cause."

Social democracy—or, as it was sometimes called in the United States and elsewhere, social justice or the Social Gospel—was responsible for many public programs. Germany began a system of social insurance for its citizens in the 1880s while undertaking a massive study of society that produced over 140 volumes of "social investigation" of almost every aspect of the nation's life. French reformers pressed in the 1890s for factory regulation, assistance to the elderly, and progressive taxation. Britain pioneered the settlement houses in working–class areas of London—a movement that soon spread to the United States as well—and, like the United States, witnessed growing challenges to the power of monopolies at both the local and national level.

In many countries, social democrats felt pressure from the rising worldwide labor movement and from the rise of socialist parties in many industrial countries as well. Strikes, sometimes violent, were common in France, Germany, Britain, and the United States in the late nineteenth century. The more militant workers became, the more unions seemed to grow. Social democrats did not always welcome the rise of militant labor movements, but they took them seriously and used them to support their own efforts at reform.

The politics of social democracy represented a great shift in the character of public life all over the industrial world. Instead of battles over the privileges of aristocrats or the power of monarchs, reformers now focused on the social problems of ordinary people and attempted to improve their lot. "The politics of the future are social politics," the British reformer Joseph Chamberlain said in the 1880s, referring to efforts to deal with the problems of ordinary citizens. That belief was fueling progressive efforts across the world in the years that Americans

http://www8.georgetown.edu/centers/cdacs/bermanpaper.pdf - Understanding Social Democracy, by Shari Berman, Barnard College

1
Look over the paper by Prof. Shari Berman of Barnard College entitled "Understanding Social Democracy." What, according to her, is the difference between social democracy and socialism, and why are the two so often conflated? Do you believe this distinction is an important one? Why or why not?

http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/mod/1891erfurt.html - Modern History Sourcebook: German Social Democracy: The Erfurt Program, 1891

http://www.marxists.org/history/international/social-democracy/commonweal.htm - Articles from Commonweal, 1884-1890 (Marxists.org)

http://etext.lib.virginia.edu/cgi-local/DHI/dhi.cgi?id=dv4-35 - Dictionary of the History of Ideas: Social Democracy in Germany and Revisionism

http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/Plabour.htm - Spartacus: History of the Labour Party (Britain)

http://www.labour.org.uk/history_of_the_labour_party - History of the Labour Party (Official)

2
Read over the links on the origins of the British Labour Party and Social Democracy in Germany. How does social democracy in either of these nations differ from what you have learned about American progressivism? Why, in your opinion, were third parties generally more successful overseas than the Progressive Party in America?

http://www.h-net.org/reviews/showrev.cgi?path=32096949068197 - Review of Daniel Rodgers, Atlantic Crossings

http://www.kevincmurphy.com/rodgers.html - Review of Daniel Rodgers, Atlantic Crossings

http://hsozkult.geschichte.hu-berlin.de/REZENSIO/symposiu/grazia.htm - Review of Daniel Rodgers, Atlantic Crossings

3
Peruse the reviews of Daniel Rodgers' book Atlantic Crossings. How, according to him, does an understanding of the social democratic movement around the world alter our perception of American history, particularly that of progressivism and the New Deal? Do you agree or disagree? Are there any problems with this approach?
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