"The most belated of nations," Theodore Roosevelt called his country during the workmen's compensation fight in 1907. Earlier reformers, progressives of his day, and later New Dealers lamented the nation's resistance to models abroad for correctives to the backwardness of American social politics. Atlantic Crossingsis the first major account of the vibrant international network that they constructed--so often obscured by notions of American exceptionalism--and of its profound impact on the United States from the 1870s through 1945.

On a narrative canvas that sweeps across Europe and the United States, Daniel Rodgers retells the story of the classic era of efforts to repair the damages of unbridled capitalism. He reveals the forgotten international roots of such innovations as city planning, rural cooperatives, modernist architecture for public housing, and social insurance, among other reforms. From small beginnings to reconstructions of the new great cities and rural life, and to the wide-ranging mechanics of social security for working people, Rodgers finds the interconnections, adaptations, exchanges, and even rivalries in the Atlantic region's social planning. He uncovers the immense diffusion of talent, ideas, and action that were breathtaking in their range and impact.

The scope of Atlantic Crossingsis vast and peopled with the reformers, university men and women, new experts, bureaucrats, politicians, and gifted amateurs. This long durée of contemporary social policy encompassed fierce debate, new conceptions of the role of the state, an acceptance of the importance of expertise in making government policy, and a recognition of a shared destiny in a newly created world.

It will be one of the most widely discussed books among historians of American politics and culture, and it will reach many social scientists in other disciplines as well...Rodgers challenges directly the prevailing wisdom about American insularity and exceptionalism, which pervades discussions of American social science and American political development among both historians and social scientists. His analysis displays the multiple dimensions of social policy formation, from the first presentation of ideas through the implementation of policies...[It] is intricate, detailed, and long, but its richness is inseparable from those characteristics...[A] well crafted, richly informative study.

Atlantic Crossingsis an extremely readable book on a subject--American and European social policy during the past century--about which few other academics have written with Daniel Rodgers' skillful blend of scholarship and flair. It is a book to be read from beginning to end for its account of the efforts to humanize the productive, but often brutal, changes imposed by the industrial revolution on what had been a predominantly agricultural world. It is also a book worth keeping on the table next to one's favorite armchair, offering moments of acquaintance with philanthropists, technologists, labor leaders, politicians, idealists and journalists whose personalities and proposals for economic correctives have been explained by the author in the manner of an erudite, witty and affectionate gallery lecturer...Most relevant of all is Mr. Rodgers' ability to convey to the reader an immediacy that is generally thought to be the sole province of great journalists. This reviewer stands in awe of the writer's ability to explain the interconnectedness of the topics he covers.

Americans are so imbued with the sense of living in a 'city upon a hill' which is a model to the world that a book depicting American leaders enmeshed in a North Atlantic web jars. Daniel Rodgers places such anetwork at the heart of Progressive social reform, informing and shaping policy agendas from the 1890s to the New Deal...this is an impressive and informative work that will sensitize any reader to the international influences in theProgressive tradition. In particular, Rodgers deftly depicts the misunderstandings and dangers inherent in adopting social policies outside of their cultural context.

[A] remarkable book...This is a big book not only in size but significance...It is a brilliant combination of intellectual and political history...It is probably the most important book written on the twentieth century in a decade at least...Because of the international perspective he takes, every subject Rodgers touches--from urban reform, to social insurance, rationalization, and more--is advanced, often significantly recast.

It's an ambitious book that attempts to reinterpret even one historical era, let alone two--and to do so across borders at that. "Nations lie enmeshed in each other's history," writes Rodgers, prefacing his argument that our progressive era and the New Deal were chapters in an age of social politics when the United States was open to overseas influence as never before or since...Rodgers [is] a graceful writer and eclectic researcher [and]...the sheer mass of his examples will compel other scholars to assess their own interpretations within his framework. For all academic and larger public libraries.

Rodger's title, Atlantic Crossings, suggests his purpose, which is to argue that reform efforts in the United States were part of a broader and connected attempt in France, Germany, Denmark, and Britain to respond to the intertwined dilemmas of explosive urban growth, growing poverty, and mass migration...Rodgers demonstrates more clearly than any previous historian how literally hundreds of American activists pounced upon the pilot projects and settlement houses of the suddenly innovative Old World and attempted to transplant them to native grounds. The depth of research, in three languages, conclusively establishes the shared response to what contemporaries called the "social question."

Atlantic Crossings, Daniel Rodgers's monumental new account of progressive politics in the United States and Europe from 1870 to 1940, could not have been more timely. A spirited challenge to conventional interpretations of American progressive politics, Rodgers's book evokes a forgotten period when big government was respected, and when America borrowed blueprints for building activist governments from Europe. Therein lies Rodgers's central challenge to prevailing interpretations of American progressive politics: his argument that reform was a European import, not a wholly indigenous creation. The book's interpretive innovation is the result of an ambitious methodological departure. Rather than limiting his scope to American-born progressives, Rodgers opens up his study to include the vast network of cosmopolitan intellectuals responsible for the formation of progressive policies in Germany, England, France, Australia, and Sweden. To understand American progressivism, Rodgers boldly insists, one must comprehend the transatlantic world of ideas and political experimentation that helped shape it...The book's thesis itself is a thing of considerable dexterity, a rare combination of clarity and complexity.

'Atlantic Crossings, Daniel Rodgers\'s monumental new account of progressive politics in the United States and Europe from 1870 to 1940, could not have been more timely. A spiritedchallenge to conventional interpretations of American progressive politics, Rodgers\'s book evokes a forgotten period when big government was respected, and when America borrowed blueprints for building activist governments from Europe.Therein lies Rodgers\'s central challenge to prevailing interpretations of American progressive politics: his argument that reform was a European import, not a wholly indigenous creation. The book\'s interpretive innovation is the resultof an ambitious methodological departure. Rather than limiting his scope to American-born progressives, Rodgers opens up his study to include the vast network of cosmopolitan intellectuals responsible for the formation of progressivepolicies in Germany, England, France, Australia, and Sweden. To understand American progressivism, Rodgers boldly insists, one must comprehend the transatlantic world of ideas and political experimentation that helped shape it...Thebook\'s thesis itself is a thing of considerable dexterity, a rare combination of clarity and complexity.'

Aware of America's backwardness in contrast to European progress, Theodore Roosevelt in 1907 called his country "The most belated of nations". Princeton historian Daniel Rodgers recounts America's efforts to repair the damage of unbridled capitalism. Photos.

The most belated of nations, Theodore Roosevelt called his country during the workmen's compensation fight in 1907. Earlier reformers, progressives of his day, and later New Dealers lamented the nation's resistance to models abroad for correctives to the backwardness of American social politics. Atlantic Crossings is the first major account of the vibrant international network that they constructed--so often obscured by notions of American exceptionalism--and of its profound impact on the United States from the 1870s through 1945.

On a narrative canvas that sweeps across Europe and the United States, Daniel Rodgers retells the story of the classic era of efforts to repair the damages of unbridled capitalism. He reveals the forgotten international roots of such innovations as city planning, rural cooperatives, modernist architecture for public housing, and social insurance, among other reforms. From small beginnings to reconstructions of the new great cities and rural life, and to the wide-ranging mechanics of social security for working people, Rodgers finds the interconnections, adaptations, exchanges, and even rivalries in the Atlantic region's social planning. He uncovers the immense diffusion of talent, ideas, and action that were breathtaking in their range and impact.

The scope of Atlantic Crossings is vast and peopled with the reformers, university men and women, new experts, bureaucrats, politicians, and gifted amateurs. This long duré e of contemporary social policy encompassed fierce debate, new conceptions of the role of the state, an acceptance of the importance of expertise in making government policy, and a recognition of a shared destiny in a newlycreated world.

Daniel T. Rodgersis Professor of History at <>Princeton University.

Prologue

Paris, 1900

World of Iron

Explaining Social Politics

The Atlantic World

Landscapes

Progressive Politics

Twilight of Laissez-Faire

Natural Acts and Social Desires

Professing Economics

The Self-Owned City

The Collectivism of Urban Life

Cities on a Hill

Civic Ambitions

Private Property, Public Designs

"City Planning in Justice to the Working Population"

The Wage Earners' Risks

Workingmen's Insurance

Fields of Interest

War Collectivism

Europe, 1914

Society "More or Less Molten"

Rural Reconstruction

Cooperative Farming

Island Communities

The Machine Age

The American Invasion of Europe

The Politics of Modernism

New Deal

The Intellectual Economy of Catastrophe

Solidarity Imagined

London, 1942

The Plan to Abolish Want

The Phoenix of Exceptionalism

Notes

Acknowledgments

Index