A Fierce Discontent

McGerr begins Part 3 with a discussion of the backlash against progressivism. In the first two decades of the 20th century, it became clear that the way of life ushered in by progressive reform had become intolerable for many Americans. The expansion of government regulation of public and private life and the growing populations of towns and cities felt confining, restraining, and oppressive. Some Americans, like the writer Sherwood Anderson, felt a desperate need for liberation from the many confinements—including upon an individual’s identity—of progressive America. Similar to Anderson’s, the various pursuits of liberation at the beginning of the new century showed that “the 20th century would not be quite so regulated and orderly, so progressive, after all” (606).

Americans embarked on new pursuits of personal space, openness, and mobility during the 1910s, as exemplified by open, simplified architectural designs—such as Frank Lloyd Wright’s designs—new technological developments, and a revolution in transportation and communication. For example, though still primitive and somewhat difficult to operate by the 1910s, the automobile gave Americans a sense of individual power and freedom from the rigidity of progressive life.

Many felt that the automobile—and other technologies that seemed to disintegrate the confines of space and time—would mend the divisions caused by class conflict, racial strife and segregation, and the clash of rural and urban life.