Contributors : V. Babashkin, T. Briggs, B. Buarque de Hollanda, C. Castelain-Meunier, V. Chassagnon, R.W. Dimand, B. Dubrion, O. Goerg, F. Granda, O. Lakomski-Laguerre, C. Maumi, S. Meardon, A. Millmow, C. Morrisson, T. N’Diaye, A. Nikulin, J.N. Parker, S. Pressman, M. Rocca, C. Schrecker, F. Sember, R. Skidelsky, H. Tanaka, P. Thane, G. Vallet

Inequalities and the Progressive Era features contributors from all corners of the world, each exploring a different type of inequality during the Progressive Era (1890s-1930s). Though this era is most associated with the United States, it corresponds to a historical period in which profound changes and progress are realized or expected all over the globe.

The original and international perspectives of the book make it possible to examine important issues or authors of the Progressive Era, who have at times been neglected or insufficiently discussed. This analysis allows us both to know more about this key period of the history of capitalism, and to consider contemporary debates regarding the treatment of inequalities with a pluralistic approach.

Academics and students of all levels, from PhD and Master degree students to undergrads will appreciate the original focus on the roots and treatments of inequalities, and this innovative collaboration between researchers of various fields in social sciences.

Contents:

Preface
Stephany Griffith-Jones

Introduction
Guillaume Vallet

I. Foundations of inequalities
1. The question of inequalities during the Progressive Era in the United States: The “Golden Mean” program of the economist Richard T. Ely
Michel Rocca

2. The progressive view of old institutionalism: Business ethics, industrial democracy and reasonable capitalism
Virgile Chassagnon and Benjamin Dubrion

3. Inequalities and the dynamics of capitalism: Will democracy survive? Albion W. Small’s view
Guillaume Vallet

4. Forgetting and remembering the Chicago school of Colombus, Ohio: Roderick D. McKenzie, neighborhoods, and inequality
Jeffrey Nathaniel Parker

5. Progressive values and institutional realities at the New School for Social Research
Cherry Schrecker

6. Progressive economic thought in interwar Australia
Alex Millmow

7. Repeated disappearance: Why was progressivism forgotten in Japanese economics?
Hidetomi Tanaka

II. Fighting income, capital and land inequalities
8. Income inequality: A turning point, 1880–1930
Christian Morrisson

9. Inequalities in the United Kingdom: The “Progressive” Era, 1890s–1920s
Patricia Thane

10. Distribution as a macroeconomic problem
Robert Skidelsky

11. Land ownership as a mechanism for the reproduction of inequality in Ecuador from 1895 to 1920s
Francisca Granda

12. Peasants, inequality and progress in the research of Alexander Chayanov: Russia and the world
Vladimir Babashkin and Alexander Nikulin

13. Broadacre City: Frank Llyod Wright’s vision of an organic capitalism
Catherine Maumi

14. The tariff question, the labor question, and Henry George’s triangulation
Stephen Meardon

III. Fighting social inequalities
15. Schumpeter’s view of social inequalities
Odile Lakomski-Laguerre

16. W.E.B. Du Bois on poverty and racial inequality
Steven Pressman and Thomas Briggs

17. A reconsideration of James Africanus Beale Horton of Sierra Leone (1835–1883) and his legacy
Odile Goerg

18. Sol Plaatje: An intellectual giant in the 20th century history of black South Africa
Tidiane N’Diaye and Guillaume Vallet

19. Stephen Leacock on political economy and the unsolved riddle of social justice
Robert W. Dimand

20. Trailblazing feminists at the turn of the twentieth century: A focus on Marianne Weber and Lou-Andreas Salomé
Christine Castelain-Meunier

21. Silvio Gesell’s vision on monetary reform: how to reduce social inequalities
Florencia Sember

22. Football culture and sports history in Latin America: From the Progressive Era to contemporary times
Bernardo Buarque de Hollanda

Index

Critical Acclaim

‘Rising inequality in late 19th and early 20th centuries US led to the development between 1920 and 1980 of the most successful and ambitious progressive tax system ever experimented. If you want to know more about the intellectual roots of the progressive era, you should read this great collection of essays. A fascinating book.’
– Thomas Piketty, Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales and Paris School of Economics, France

‘This remarkable and carefully curated volume is an invaluable roadmap to the treatment of inequalities during the fascinating and often misunderstood Progressive Era. As Guillaume Vallet and his contributors argue there is much to be learned about this transformative era of political, economic, and social reform. Today, we confront a wide range of unacceptable inequalities. Academics, policymakers, and activists should look to this volume for inspiration as they design and advocate pathways out of the present morass.’
– Ilene Grabel, University of Denver, US

Although “The Progressive Era” is usually understood as the period from 1900 to 1917 in the United States during which major political, social, and economic reforms took place, the authors of the twenty-two essays about more than a dozen countries on five continents in this volume broaden the geographical and chronological (1890s-1930s) focus on similar reform activities. Current efforts to address the problem of increasing inequalities of wealth and income in our own time can benefit from the perspectives provided by these studies of a similar problem a century ago.’
– James M. McPherson, Princeton University, US and author of Battle Cry of Freedom; The Civil War Era