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PROGRESSIVES IN SEARCH OF A USABLE PAST: THE ROLE OF A NATIVE TRADITION OF IDEALISM IN THE SOCIAL NOVELS OF DAVID GRAHAM PHILLIPS, WINSTON CHURCHILL, AND ROBERT HERRICK, 1900-1917 Item Type text; Dissertation-Reproduction (electronic) Authors Crapa, Joseph Robert, 1943- Publisher The University of Arizona. Rights Copyright © is held by the author. Digital access to this material is made possible by the University Libraries, University of Arizona. Further transmission, reproduction or presentation (such as public display or performance) of protected items is prohibited except with permission of the author. Download date 04/10/2021 06:00:14 Link to Item http://hdl.handle.net/10150/290383 INFORMATION TO USERS This material was produced from a microfilm copy of the original document. While the most advanced technological means to photograph and reproduce this document have been used, the quality is heavily dependent upon the quality of the original submitted. 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Robert, 1943* PROGRESSIVES IN SEARCH OF A USABLE PAST: THE ROLE CF A NATIVE TRADITION OF IDEALISM IN THE SOCIAL NOVELS OF DAVID GRAHAM PHILLIPS, WINSTON CHURCHILL, AND ROBERT HERRICK, 1900=1917. The University of Arizona,, Ph.D., 1975 Literature, modern Xerox University Microfilms t Ann Arbor, Michigan 48106 © COPYRIGHTED BY JOSEPH ROBERT CRAPA 1975 iii THIS DISSERTATION HAS BEEN MICROFILMED EXACTLY AS RECEIVED. PROGRESSIVES IN SEARCH OF A USABLE PAST: THE ROLE OF A NATIVE TRADITION OF IDEALISM IN THE SOCIAL NOVELS OF DAVID GRAHAM PHILLIPS, WINSTON CHURCHILL, AND ROBERT HERRICK, 1900-1917 by Joseph Robert Crapa A Dissertation Submitted to the Faculty of the DEPARTMENT OF ENGLISH In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements For the Degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY In the Graduate College THE UNIVERSITY OF ARIZONA 19 7 5 THE UNIVERSITY OF ARIZONA GRADUATE COLLEGE I hereby recommend that this dissertation prepared under my direction by Joseph Robert Crapa entitled PROGRESSIVES IN SEARCH OF A USABLE PAST: THE ROLE OF A NATIVE TRADITION OF IDEALISM IN THE SOCIAL NOVELS OF DAVID GRAHAM PHILLIPS, WINSTON CHURCHILL, AND ROBERT HERRICK, 1900-1917 be accepted as fulfilling the dissertation requirement of the degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY P&j> -r lnh -T Dissertation Director Date After inspection of the final copy of the dissertation, the following members of the Final Examination Committee concur in its approval and recommend its acceptance:"" J This approval and acceptance is contingent on the candidate's adequate performance and defense of this dissertation at the final oral examination. The inclusion of this sheet bound into the library copy of the dissertation is evidence of satisfactory performance at the final examination. STATEMENT BY AUTHOR This dissertation has been submitted in partial fulfillment of requirements for an advanced degree at The University of Arizona and is deposited in the University Library to be made available to borrowers under rules of the Library. Brief quotations from this dissertation are allowable without special permission, provided that accurate acknowledgment of source is made. Requests for permission for extended quotation from or reproduction of this manuscript in whole or in part may be granted by the copyright holder. SIGNED: / ACKNOWLEDGMENTS I wish to thank the members of my committee for the care with which they read this dissertation: Dr. Albert F. Gegenheimer, Dr. Arthur M. Kay, Dr. John H. McElroy, and Dr. Cecil Robinson, Special gratitude is due to my director, Dr. Paul Rosenblatt, for his critical advice and his personal encouragement. I am grateful also to the English Department of The University of Arizona for awarding me the David L. Patrick Scholarship in Literature which allowed me to devote an uninterrupted period of time to research. Finally, I wish to thank my wife Barbara and my son Judd for their love and patience and it is to them that I happily dedicate this dissertation. iv TABLE OF CONTENTS Page ABSTRACT vi CHAPTER I. INTRODUCTION: PROGRESSIVES AND THE PAST .... 1 II. THREE PROGRESSIVE NOVELISTS 55 David Graham Phillips 57 Winston Churchill ... 83 Robert Herrick . 109 III. THE LITERARY USES OF THE PAST 134 IV. THE MILLENNIAL VISION 191 SELECTED BIBLIOGRAPHY 241 V ABSTRACT David Graham Phillips (1867-1911), Winston Churchill (1871-1947), and Robert Herrick (1868-1938) were three novelists whose literary works were popular during the Progressive era from 1900 to 1917. As thoughtful reformers offended by corruption in government, business, and social life they examined the nation's past to discover the roots of its moral collapse. At first, like many of the muckrakers, their reverence for traditional ideals and institutions was unquestioned, but as they recognized the pervasiveness of national corruption they adopted in common with other Progressive theoreticians such as Herbert Croly, J. Allen Smith, and Walter Weyl, a dynamic rather than a static approach to American history and idealism. The personal source of the three authors' idealism was implicit in the native heritage which they proudly traced to their Puritan, Cavalier, and Pioneer forebears. As Progressives they argued that the democratic ideals of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness espoused by their ancestors contained the promise of individual ful fillment for Americans and their Republic. The tragic flaw in America's history, which they discovered, was that this promise had been mistakenly interpreted solely as a sanction for material and not spiritual development. Their task as vi Vll reformers therefore was to make their contemporaries aware of the democratic significance of America's historical culture as a guide for the future. The social novels of Phillips, Churchill, and Herrick went beyond the muckrakers' literature of exposure and became, instead, symbolic rites of personal and national redemption and dedication. Characteristic of these novels is the juxtaposition of idealistic and materialistic codes of behavior. Progressive reformers clash with successful but corrupt politicians and financiers; dutiful wives with ruthless socialites; and honest professionals and workingmen with frauds, grafters, and exploiters. Although the authors were attentive to the arguments of the materialists, their purpose was to show the moral superiority of their idealists. The portrayal of these fictional idealists depended upon the view of the past which they represented. The contrast between a static and a dynamic view of American culture is found in Phillips' The Cost and The Plum Tree, Churchill's Mr. Crewe's Career, and Herrick's The Web of Life. The three authors also adapted the biblical allegory of the prodigal son to portray contemporary Americans who abandon pursuit of materialistic goals and become morally and spiritually enlightened. This allegory is central to Phillips' The Second Generation, Churchill's A Far Country, and Herrick's The Common Lot. viii Phillips, Churchill, and Herrick hoped that America could be reformed by the reassertion or reinterpretation of its traditional ideals. But as economic conditions worsened and the threat of class warfare increased the Progressives tried to unite the principles of socialistic reform with a native tradition of democratic idealism. Phillips attempted this synthesis in The Conflict, Churchill in The Dwelling-Place of Light, and Herrick in A Life for a Life. World War I effectively ended the Progressive move ment in politics and literature. There would be no con certed appeal to historical idealism as a basis for national reform until the Depression. The unique role of Phillips, Churchill, and Herrick in America's literary history is that their use of the past in company with other Progressive reformers to establish a dynamic tradition of idealism anticipated and laid the foundation for Van Wyck Brooks's famous injunction to a later generation of critics and writers to create and discover a usable past. CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION: PROGRESSIVES AND THE PAST The first two decades of the twentieth century witnessed the growth and decline of a widespread public reaction against the materialism and corrupt behavior which many Americans believed had come to dominate the public and private life of the nation. Among the abuses which muckrakers such as Lincoln Steffens, Ida Tarbell, and Upton Sinclair vigorously uncovered were mismanagement of city and state governments, the unethical practices of business corporations, and the adulteration of food.