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Progressive Era


  • New York State's Lessons on Preventing a Crisis of Judicial Legitimacy

    by Bruce W. Dearstyne

    Forceful activism amid rapid social change results in legislation shot down by the most powerful court, leading to calls for sweeping court reform. This was New York State in the early 20th century. How the State Court of Appeals weathered this storm holds lessons for SCOTUS today, if the Justices and their critics care to learn from history.


  • A House Still Divided (Part 1)

    by Walter G. Moss

    The core of our polarization is a disagreement about what kind of country we will be – one dominated by Christian white men or one, in Frederick Douglass's words, "of perfect civil equality to the people of all races and of all creeds, and to men of no creeds." 



  • The Trouble With the Gavin Newsom Recall

    by Ron Brownstein

    California's Recall law can allow a relatively small number of petitioners to initiate a recall of an elected official, and for that official to be removed even if he or she gets more votes than any alternative candidate. This isn't what the Progressive Era architects of the law intended, says San Jose State historian Glen Gendzel. 



  • The Template for Using White Privilege to Fight Racism

    by Nancy C. Unger

    Whiteness enables allies in this struggle to push in ways that African Americans sometimes cannot without disproportionate risk. That was Belle La Follette’s secret — she used white privilege to fight against it.



  • SHGAPE Prizes 2020

    by Society for Historians of the Gilded Age and Progressive Era

    Andrew Huebner, Caroline Grego, Alana Toulin and Mark C. Boxell are winners of annual prizes from the Society for Historians of the Gilded Age and Progressive Era.