Cecelia Tichi. Civic Passions: Seven Who Launched Progressive America. Chapel Hill: University Of North Carolina Press, 2011. 400 pp. $19.95, paper, ISBN 978-0-8078-7191-1.

Reviewed by Daniel Burnstein

Published on H-SHGAPE (August, 2011)

Commissioned by Julia Irwin (University of South Florida)

In presenting profles of seven representative sive Era reformers largely established the ground‐ Progressive Era social reformers, Cecelia Tichi work for the social reform agenda of the rest of provides an excellent broad introduction to many the twentieth century. aspects of that era and the Gilded Age that preced‐ Alice Hamilton, MD is the frst fgure profled ed it, focusing particularly on eforts to address by Tichi. Hamilton, like two other women fea‐ the harsh social conditions of those times. Tichi, tured among Tichi’s seven, gained experience who is the William R. Kenan Jr. Professor of Eng‐ working at Hull House, Jane Addams’s pioneering lish at Vanderbilt University, portrays her charac‐ Chicago settlement. Hamilton’s research, writing, ters through an engaging narrative designed to in‐ and teaching established her as a pioneer in the spire people in the present day to work for social public health sector devoted to workplace safety justice in the face of trends that have turned our issues. Her eforts helped raise public awareness period into a “second Gilded Age” of harsh social that workers sickened or disabled by toxic materi‐ injustice (p. xii). Drawing her readers in by pre‐ als or other occupational hazards were not simply senting absorbing details about the life experi‐ a regrettable matter of concern to their own fami‐ ences of the fgure under consideration in each of lies, but rather that these conditions constituted a the seven core chapters, she gently interweaves broad social problem that could largely be pre‐ abstract concepts related to the work of each re‐ vented through governmental regulations. Her former, as well as solid explanations of more gen‐ work helped spark historic expansions of govern‐ eral aspects of the Gilded Age and Progressive mental responsibility for occupational safety and Era--from John Dewey’s views on education to the health. She died at age 101 in 1970, just short of issue of political patronage--all of which allow the the establishment of the U.S. Occupational Safety reader to understand a great deal about those and Health Administration (OSHA)--an agency times. Moreover, Tichi demonstrates that Progres‐ which, when not hobbled by appointments geared H-Net Reviews toward undermining its agenda, has brought care services. The bureau continues its work in oversight of workplace conditions to every state the present day as an arm of the Department of of the Union. Health and Human Services. John R. Commons, an economics professor at Another veteran of Hull House, Florence Kel‐ the University of Wisconsin, produced research ley moved to New York in 1899 to direct the newly data that helped undermine the myth that laissez- formed National Consumers’ League, which faire and Social Darwinist theories were derived sought to educate the public and organize con‐ from unalterable laws of the universe. He showed sumer boycotts of manufacturers profting from how these theories resulted in iniquities such as inadequate wages, adverse working conditions, unconscionably low wages, inadequate housing, and the use of child labor. The league faced the and the use of child labor. Commons encouraged ferce headwinds of general antipathy toward the academics to enhance a faltering American immigrants who toiled in the sweatshops, public democracy by producing factual data based on relations campaigns that portrayed corporations empirical research into real-world socioeconomic as admirable contributors to American life, and a conditions. His work served as a model for re‐ quasi-Calvinist tendency to equate pleas for ade‐ search in the emerging felds of social work and quate leisure time with slothfulness. For the sociology. And his graduate students went on to groundbreaking Muller v. Oregon Supreme Court make signifcant contributions, most notably in case (1908), the league provided attorney Louis providing guidance for the development of the So‐ Brandeis with research-based data proving that cial Security Act of 1935--a law which, Tichi em‐ excessive work undermined women’s health. The phasizes, countered the thrust of Social Darwin‐ unyielding opposition of some states, particularly ism by guaranteeing “survival not only for the in the South, to the league’s pleas to enact work‐ fttest but for the people at large” (p. 88). place legislation convinced Kelley that federal leg‐ At Hull House, Julia Lathrop worked with oth‐ islation was needed. Her eforts helped lay the er women activists to establish the world’s frst ju‐ foundation for the passage, six years after her venile court in 1899. A few years later, she helped death, of the federal Fair Labor Standards Act establish one of the frst graduate schools of social (1938), which mandated minimum wages, placed work, and ensured that such institutions would controls on maximum work-hours, and banned emphasize not only practical work but also re‐ most forms of child labor. search into issues such as juvenile delinquency. In opposing transit and gas company execu‐ Lathrop worried about the state of American tives who colluded with politicians to maintain democracy, believing it was undermined by fail‐ unnecessarily high prices, and in leading a cam‐ ing to address problems of massive poverty. She paign against life insurance company practices was appointed to direct the newly formed U.S. that defrauded working-class clients, Louis Bran‐ Children’s Bureau in 1912, the establishment of deis gained a national reputation as the “People’s which represented a signifcant step in the recog‐ Attorney” (p. 186). Powered by a strong sense of nition of federal government responsibility to ad‐ civic duty, he worried that democracy was threat‐ dress social problems. During her eight years ened by the imposition of an “oligarchy” con‐ there,she directed the bureau to develop re‐ trolled by powerful corporations (p. 184). Fearing search-based data on the causes of high rates of that abject poverty undermined the ability of citi‐ infant mortality and childhood disability. These zens to act vigorously on their own behalf, he en‐ and related eforts helped inspire legislation in fu‐ couraged the formation of labor unions as a voice ture years instituting maternal and child health for the voiceless to help counterbalance corporate

2 H-Net Reviews power. In the Muller v. Oregon case, which vali‐ experienced by African Americans, and with ap‐ dated maximum work-hours legislation for wom‐ peals to her people to assert themselves concern‐ en, Brandeis pioneered the use of empirical so‐ ing this oppression. Thus, in addition to “awaken‐ cioeconomic data in constitutional litigation, ing the conscience of the nation,” as W. E. B Du thereby lessening the reliance on rigid legal Bois remarked in reference to her anti-lynching precedence as a guide to justice. crusade, Tichi also credits Wells-Barnett with pro‐ Tichi relates that Walter Rauschenbusch took viding an important foundation for the broader a passage of the Lord’s Prayer (“Thy will be done African American civil rights movement that on earth”) as evidence that “the Kingdom of God fowered by the mid-twentieth century (p. 272). was meant to arrive not only in the afterlife but Alice Hamilton, Julia Lathrop, and Florence here on earth” (p. 221). Rather than emphasizing Kelley not only shared the experience of resi‐ the need to engage in a personal relationship with dence at Hull House but also remained important Christ in order to gain entrance into heaven, he allies in their subsequent work. Tichi notes many urged that “the moral power generated by the other points of intersection among her seven fg‐ Christian religion” should be used to help the ures--from the assistance Kelley provided Louis poor gain a share of the Kingdom of God in the Brandeis in Muller v. Oregon to the similarity of form of decent working conditions, housing, social science and Social Gospel works infuencing health care, education, and leisure time--factors John R. Commons and Walter Rauschenbusch--all that would, in turn, bring out the best in people of which provide the book a sense of continuity demoralized by oppressive social conditions (p. and coherence. All seven grew to maturity during 211). Rauschenbusch helped popularize this “So‐ the Gilded Age, and, responding to the period’s op‐ cial Gospel” message, which provided inspiration pressive social conditions, came into their own as for social legislation from the Progressive Era to reform advocates during the latter part of that pe‐ the New Deal to the Great Society, and provided a riod and the ensuing Progressive Era. Generally, pillar sustaining Martin Luther King Jr. and other they were morally repulsed by the often callous leaders of the mid-century African American civil disregard of poverty and related social problems, rights movement. and by the laissez-faire and Social Darwinist justi‐ Sadly, most white reformers did not endorse fcations for ignoring those problems. They recog‐ the movement for African American civil rights nized the importance of the social and physical during the Progressive Era--a period marked by environment in infuencing one’s life trajectory, tightened restrictions on blacks that were often and, rejecting simplistic blame-the-victim theo‐ enforced by the threat of violence. The lynchings ries, they asserted the need for governmental ac‐ of three of Ida B. Wells-Barnett’s friends in Mem‐ tion to address social problems. phis in 1892 sparked her crusading work, in Many of Tichi’s seven hoped that their pro‐ which she sought to rouse the public’s conscience posed reforms would help reinvigorate American through investigating and publicizing the facts democracy, and they maintained that a democra‐ about America’s lynchings. Forced to leave Mem‐ cy cannot function well if it ignores the interests phis under threats of violence, Wells-Barnett of the disadvantaged. In sync with their hopes for moved north, where she penned newspaper arti‐ democracy, the seven saw their role to a large ex‐ cles widely syndicated in the African American tent as educative, using empirical research to press and at times in the white press as well. She publicize conditions that they hoped would wake interwove her anti-lynching campaign with ef‐ up the public to social injustices, to the potential forts to publicize the socioeconomic oppression

3 H-Net Reviews for change, and to the illogical nature of argu‐ to criticisms of the Progressives, but only when in‐ ments defending the status quo. tegral to help understand the seven and their The social reformers hoped that their empha‐ work--rather than making the presentation of his‐ sis on empirically derived data would shield them toriographical points or the Progressives’ warts against charges of being motivated by “feminine ends in themselves. She portrays the overarching sentimentality for the poor,” as Alice Hamilton re‐ truth that there was a great deal to admire about marked, and they believed that their empiricism her seven. There are plenty of scholars who pick would show the public that they were impartial at Progressive Era reformers’ faults, or feel and above politics (p. 49). But given that Tichi’s obliged to emphasize the negative at least as express purpose is to provide lessons to those much as the positive, until the overall impression who may wish to struggle against social injustice gained by an undergraduate student being intro‐ in this second Gilded Age (the harsh conditions of duced to those reformers is a negative one. That is which she eloquently describes in her postscript), not an accurate overall portrayal of Progressive perhaps it would have been useful to remind Era social reform for an introductory undergrad‐ readers more often that it was the Progressives’ uate context. Students go away from courses expression of moral concern about poverty and taught in such a manner believing, wrongly, that related social problems that was key in breaking there are few if any model standard bearers of so‐ through to the public’s consciousness. Certainly cial justice to look up to for inspiration from that their emphasis on research bolstered their case, period of U.S. history. Tichi clearly believes that but their data and the arguments they used in re‐ history can be valuable when we glean from it lation to that data were expressed in terms meant that which will help make a better world. She to stimulate emotional response as well as logical does not try to hide her outlook, and is frank agreement. Progressives of the present day are about hoping that her work helps inspire people not losing battles in the public arena because they to address the social injustices of the second Gild‐ fail to present enough facts. Rather, all too often ed Age. As an introductory work for undergradu‐ their overreliance on logic and facts blinds them ate courses or for the general reader I highly rec‐ to the need to present emotionally saleable argu‐ ommend this book. ments as well--moral arguments that can compete against the fear-based contentions of those taking us deeper into a second Gilded Age. Tichi’s seven do indeed make moral appeals in her book, but her persistent emphasis on their fact-based ap‐ proach sometimes obscures this important ele‐ ment of their appeal. Tichi’s book is an accurate and thoughtful synthesis, steeped in impressive research in both primary and secondary sources. It is not geared to proving new scholarly points to academics, to ad‐ dressing historiographical controversies, to pro‐ viding a portrayal of Progressive Era reform out‐ side of its social reform wing, or to pointing out the many faults of the era’s social reformers. She does at times refer to historiographical issues and

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Citation: Daniel Burnstein. Review of Tichi, Cecelia. Civic Passions: Seven Who Launched Progressive America. H-SHGAPE, H-Net Reviews. August, 2011.

URL: https://www.h-net.org/reviews/showrev.php?id=33308

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