The Progressive era has long been viewed as the seedbed of the modern American state, a time when a powerful reformist impulse reshaped the nation's political life in what some have called a "second founding". Driven by a belief in executive-centered government yet devoted to the ideal of participatory democracy, Progressives sought to create self-rule on a grand scale and break the hold of localist parties and courts that had dominated American politics for decades.

In this wide-ranging appraisal of the legacy of Progressivism, a distinguished group of political scientists and historians reconsiders the achievements and failures of the "new democracy". The essays explore the impact of Progressivism on domestic as well as foreign affairs, on the theory as well as the practice of American government and politics. Taken together, the pieces offer an original, interdisciplinary critique of modern American political development, one that challenges traditional interpretations of the pivotal first decades of the twentieth century.

In addition to editors Sidney M. Milkis and Jerome M. Mileur, the contributors are Martha Derthick, John J. Dinan, Eldon J. Eisenach, Philip J. Ethington, Alonzo L. Hamby, Morton Keller, Eileen L. McDonagh, and Wilson Carey McWilliams.