The Lost Promise of Progressivism.(Brief Article)

Eisenach attempts a "reconstruction" of Progressive thought for the communitarian age in this quirky intellectual history of the Progressive Era. Positioning his book as part of what he sees as a rush to reinterpret the intellectual foundations of American civilization, led by historians and "refined" by political scientists, Eisenach presents Progressive thought as a possible supplement to late twentieth-century ideology. Because, Eisenach writes, Americans' "only source" of shared identity is political, unsound political ideals lead to national malaise. According to Eisenach, we are in the middle of the sort of ideological identity crisis that can best be addressed by the sort …