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G. H. Mead, Socialism, and the Progressive Agenda

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G. H. Mead, Socialism, and the Progressive Agenda Sociology Faculty Publications Sociology 1-1988 G. H. Mead, Socialism, and the Progressive Agenda Dmitri N. Shalin University of Nevada, Las Vegas, [email protected] Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalscholarship.unlv.edu/sociology_pubs Part of the Politics and Social Change Commons, Social Psychology and Interaction Commons, and the Sociology of Culture Commons Repository Citation Shalin, D. N. (1988). G. H. Mead, Socialism, and the Progressive Agenda. American Journal of Sociology, 93(4), 913-951. https://digitalscholarship.unlv.edu/sociology_pubs/48 This Article is protected by copyright and/or related rights. It has been brought to you by Digital Scholarship@UNLV with permission from the rights-holder(s). You are free to use this Article in any way that is permitted by the copyright and related rights legislation that applies to your use. For other uses you need to obtain permission from the rights-holder(s) directly, unless additional rights are indicated by a Creative Commons license in the record and/ or on the work itself. This Article has been accepted for inclusion in Sociology Faculty Publications by an authorized administrator of Digital Scholarship@UNLV. For more information, please contact [email protected]. G. H. Mead, Socialism, and the Progressive Agendal DmitriN. Shalin SouthernIllinois Universityat Carbondale Mead is known today primarilyfor his originalphilosophy and -socialpsychology. Much less familiarto us is Mead the reformer,a man who sought to balance political engagementwith academic detachmentand who establishedhimself as an astutecritic of con- temporaryAmerican society. This paper examinesMead's political beliefs and his theoryof the reformprocess. Drawing on little- knownsources and archival materials,it demonstratesthat Mead sharedsocialism's humanitarian ends and that,following the domi- nantprogressive ideology of his time,he soughtto accomplishthese ends by constitutionalmeans. An argumentis made that Mead's ideologicalcommitments had profoundeffects on his substantive ideas, particularlyon the dialecticalpremises of social interaction- ism. The finalsection of the paper discussesthe legacy of Mead and the Progressivemovement. The image of Mead many sociologystudents form in the years of their apprenticeshipis that of an armchairphilosopher, dispassionately dis- coursingon the nature of mind, self, and societyand largelyremoved fromthe practicalconcerns of the day. It is usuallylater that they learn thatMead was at the forefrontof the contemporarymovement for social reformand at some pointseriously contemplated a careeras professional reformer.The publicationsby Diner (1975, 1980), Deegan and Burger (1978), and, morerecently, Joas (1985) alertus to thisless knownfacet of Mead's life. The extentof Mead's involvementin the Progressivemove- 1 Thispaper is partof a projecton Progressivismand ChicagoSociology supported by a grantfrom the American Sociological Association's Committee on theProblems of theDiscipline. The secondsection of the paper was presentedat theannual meeting of theMidwest Sociological Society, Des Moines,1986. I wishto thankmy colleagues at SouthernIllinois University for the generous responses they gave me during the discus- sion of thispaper at the departmentalseminar; Norbert Wiley for directing me to Mead's earlypublications in theOberlin Review; Janet S. Belcove-Shalinfor her help in decipheringsome intractable passages from Mead's correspondence,as wellas for hersubstantive comments; and threeanonymous reviewers for their constructive criti- cism.Requests for reprints should be sentto DmitriN. Shalin,Department of Sociol- ogy,Southern Illinois University at Carbondale,Carbondale, Illinois 62901. ? 1988by The Universityof Chicago.All rightsreserved. 0002-9602/88/9304-0006$01.50 AJS Volume 93 Number4 (January1988): 913-51 913 This content downloaded from 131.216.164.45 on Wed, 8 May 2013 12:16:06 PM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions AmericanJournal of Sociology mentand, moreimportant, the effect it had on his social theory,however, are stillfar from being fullyappraised. One reasonMead's politicalviews and engagementshave untilrecently escaped close scrutinyis that the relevantpublications (some unmen- tioned in any standardbibliography) appeared mostlyin limited-circu- lation magazines and local newspapers,while a portionof his political writings-notably on socialism and the human cost of industri- alization-were never publishedand are available only in manuscript form.2The impressionone draws fromthese writings,reinforced by Mead's private correspondence,is that of a man of radicallydemo- cratic convictions,keenly aware of social inequality,and deeply con- cernedwith the effectof the divisionof labor on the workingman. Like many other progressivesof his time, Mead was engaged in a lifelong polemic with socialists.He accepted withoutreservation their humani- tarian ends but took issue with them on the question of means, fully embracingthe basic progressivisttenet that the historically unique frame- work of Americandemocracy provides the best available leverage for social reconstruction.Mead's life can be seen as an attemptto prove in boththeory and practicethat revolutionary objectives can be achievedby essentiallyconservative means. This paper examinesMead's politicalbeliefs and his theoryof social reform.It also arguesthat Mead's substantivethought, and particularly the dialecticalpremises of social interactionism,reflected his ideological commitments.An auxiliaryaim ofthis paper is to showthat, even though progressivethinkers might have failedto answerthe questionof how to effectradical social change by workingwithin the constitutionalframe- work of democracy,they deserve credit for placing this question on the politicalagenda and stressingthe public's role as an agentof social recon- struction. I begin with the sociohistoricalcontext of the Progressivemovement. Aftertracing Mead's path to Progressivism,I analyze his theoryof the reformprocess. Next, I explorethe relationshipsbetween his political beliefsand substantiveideas. And finally,I discuss the contributionof Mead and theprogressives to thetheory and practiceof American democ- racy. THE SOCIOHISTORICAL CONTEXT OF PROGRESSIVISM We plownew fields, we opennew mines, we foundnew cities; we drive backthe Indian and exterminatethe buffalo; we girdlethe land with iron 2 One shouldalso bear in mindthat the articlesby Mead gatheredin a widelyused volumeedited by Reck (1964)sometimes appear there in an abridgedform and that typicallyleft out are thepolitically relevant sections. 914 This content downloaded from 131.216.164.45 on Wed, 8 May 2013 12:16:06 PM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions Mead roadsand lace theair withtelegraph wires; we add knowledgeto knowl- edge,and utilizeinvention after invention; we buildschools and endow colleges;yet it becomesno easierfor the masses of our people to makea living.On thecontrary, it becomesharder. The wealthyclass is becoming morewealthy; but the poor class is becomingmore dependent. The gulf betweenthe employed and theunemployed is growingwider; social con- trastsare becoming sharper; as liveriedcarriages appear, so arebarefooted children. These words were writtenin 1879 by Henry George ([1879] 1926, pp. 390-91), the prophetof American reform, and are excerptedfrom his book Progressand Poverty.Serialized in the United States, translated intothe major European languages,and sellingsome two millioncopies in the next two decades, this book leftan indelibleimpression on the generationof progressivethinkers in America.In retrospect,the enthusi- astic responsethe book elicitedfrom clergy, businessmen, academics, professionals,and philanthropistsseems all the morestartling in view of theauthor's expressed commitment to socialism:"The ideal ofsocialism is grand and noble; and it is, I am convinced, possible of realization" (George 1926, p. 319). That was writtenat a time when the spiritof laissez-fairereigned supreme and the principleof "the survival of the fittest"enjoyed the statusof unassailabletruth. The book's phenomenal success is testimonyto the sweepingchange in popular mood that the countryunderwent within two decades and thatmarked the transition to the Age of Reformin Americanpolitics (Aaron 1951, p. 67; Hofstadter 1955; Goldman 1956, p. 76; Resek 1967, p. xxi). The best indicatorof the new mood in the land was the change in mainstreamProtestantism. Toward the end of the 19thcentury, the pre- dominantlyindividualistic Evangelicalism of the pre-Civil War era noticeablyyielded to socially conscious and reform-orientedforms of Christianity.Throughout the country,evangelical establishments, such as Mead's alma mater,Oberlin College, were spreadingthe word that shaping man in the image of God meant not only purifyinghis soul throughthe gospel of Jesusbut also changingthe environmentthat cor- rupted his spiritand bred social ills. Henry King's Theologyand the Social Consciousness and John Commons's Social Reformand the Churchare just two examplesof the voluminousliterature of the 1890s thatspurred municipal reforms, the survey of immigrants, and theforma- tion of settlements,and thathelped to shape the idea of Christiansocial workas a practicalway ofimproving society (Smith 1957; Barnard 1969). The Christiansocialism of thisperiod was but a radicalexpression of the Social Gospel movementthat challengedthe Christianestablishment in thelast decade ofthe 19thcentury. Indeed, whenthe Rev. W. D. P. Bliss ([1890] 1970, p. 352-53)
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