Buenker and Kantowicz have edited an excellent, handy reference guide to one of the most important, and certainly one of the most written about, eras of American history. Including entries for individuals, organizations, movements, issues, newspapers, laws, and court cases, the dictionary provides concise and up-to-date descriptions as well as bibliographic citations to the secondary literature on the people and events comprising Progressivism and its oppositon. . . . Nearly everyone interested in the Progressive Era will find some important use for this volume. Choice
The Progressive Era may be described as a broad-based response by Americans from diverse backgrounds to the emergence of the United States as a modern, urban, industrial, and multicultural world power during the period 1890 to 1920. The Historical Dictionary of the Progressive Era, 1890-1920 is a comprehensive source detailing the people and events that made this a notable period in American history. The volume provides biographical sketches of the most prominent individuals of the period along with entries on major reform and professional organizations, key legislative enactments, commissions and committees, schools of interpretation, and important concepts. In each entry the contributor presents the most important factual information and an interpretation of the topic's significance. Where applicable, each entry has a bibliography that includes the manuscript collection and the standard and revisionist works on the topic. The dictionary also includes an introductory essay and a chronology of important events. A subject index containing organizations, laws, concepts, states, and cities concludes the work. This historical dictionary will serve as a primary reference source for students and scholars of a significant era in American history.
About the Author: JOHN D. BUENKER is a Professor of History at the University of Wisconsin-Parkside. He has written numerous articles and books on the Progressive Era, including Urban Liberalism and The Income Tax the Progressive Era.
EDWARD R. KANTOWICZ is a public historian based in Chicago. He is author of Polish American Politics in Chicago and of Corporation Sole: Cardinal Mundelein and Chicago Catholicism, as well as essays on Polish ethnicity and business history.
