“The American economic, political, and social organization has given to its citizens the benefits of material prosperity, political liberty, and a wholesome natural equality; and this achievement is a gain, not only to Americans, but to the world and to civilization.”—Herbert Croly, The Promise of American Life (1909)
Croly, the creator of the political concept of the “The New Nationalism” (subsequently adopted by Theodore Roosevelt), was born on this date in 1869. The magazine he founded in 1914, The New Republic, still endures.
Equally important, after influencing TR, Woodrow Wilson, and Progressivism in general, Croly's prescription for liberalism—combining the big-government form of Alexander Hamilton with the egalitarian ends of Thomas Jefferson—looks like it’s about to make a comeback in Barack Obama’s Washington.
The centennial of the publication of The Promise of American Life is one that libertarians, such asVirginia Postrel, will certainly rue. But if you want to understand a century of American political thought, his manifesto is a good place to start.
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