A Fierce Discontent

McGerr continues Part 3 by describing the ultimate decline of the progressive movement in early 20th century America. Woodrow Wilson became president of the United States in 1912 and 1917 saw the beginning of World War I. The progressives viewed the war as the perfect opportunity to advance their agenda again—to put the brakes on the new pursuit of pleasure that had come to characterize American life and to reinvigorate a sense of collective responsibility and need.

In order to catalyze a successful war effort, the federal government desperately needed the support of the people; President Wilson’s administration effectively garnered that support with the help of experienced progressive reformers, agreements with businessmen, and the creation of new federal agencies. With the help of progressive reformers, the Wilson administration manipulated and cajoled the people into supporting the war effort, thinking that such an approach might result in loyal, amiable support. To the progressive reformers’ delight, the loyal populace the government wanted to create “was just the one the progressives had long envisioned: an essentially middle-class people who banished individualism, disciplined pleasure, eliminated class differences, and elevated women” (777).

Hiding behind the guise of patriotism, progressives successfully used the war as an opportunity to enforce prohibition, tax the elite, improve labor conditions for the working class, generally improve women’s rights, and to focus their efforts on reforming the character and behavior of a group they had previously ignored: soldiers.