Description: Kauffman's perspective on progress in America -- from the point of view of those lost -- revives forgotten figures and reinvigorates dormant causes as he examines the characters and arguments from six critical battles that forever altered the American the debates over child labor, school consolidation, women's suffrage, the back-to-the-land movement, "good roads" and the Interstate Highway System, and a standing army. The integration of these subjects and the presentation of the anti-Progress case as a coherent political tendency encompassing several issues and many years is unprecedented. With wit, passion, and an arsenal of long-neglected sources, Kauffman measures the cost of progress in 20th century America and exposes the elaborate plans behind seemingly "inevitable" reforms.

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