Crusader Nation: The United States in Peace and the Great War, 1898-1920

In this history of the first two decades of the twentieth century, the author paints a picture of a transformative period in the United States, when many remarkable individuals fought to decide which path the country would follow. Victorian restraint was being cast aside by men and women testing social conventions and sexual mores, dancing to dangerous "jazz" music, and expressing themselves through revolutionary forms of art. The author traces how these modern ideas were also related to a powerful progressive reform movement that hoped to end the social evils that had accompanied unrestrained industrialization, and he examines the impact of huge waves of European immigration on both the American economy and its social fabric. The struggles to end child labor, win votes for women, rid cities of corrupt political machines, improve public health and education, and prohibit alcohol brought forth a passionate response from millions of Americans who desired both a more efficient and a more compassionate society. Combining anecdote with historical scholarship, the author shows how American crusading continued through World War I, though now focused on "making the world safe for democracy." This portrait of early twentieth-century America reveals important qualities of our national character that endure to this day.