The Age of Reform

Summary

Hofstadter examines American reform movements from the Populist revolt of the 1890s through Progressivism and into the New Deal, probing the motives and contradictions behind them. He challenges sentimental views of the farmers and middle class reformers, exposing nostalgia, status anxiety, and at times nativism beneath their crusades. The book reshaped how historians understood liberalism and remains one of the most influential interpretations of modern American politics.