SOCIAL THEORY AND THE PROGRESSIVE ERA.

The period roughly spanning the years 1900 to 1920 has been termed the "Progressive era" because of the extensive amount of thought and action directed at ill effects of massive urbanization, industrialization, and immigration. The argument advanced is that each historian projected back upon the Progressive era the dominant theoretical approaches and the salient societal features of his own period. In taking this line of approach, the author hopes to buttress the view that social and historical theory has developed not so much by processes wholly internal to the social sciences but rather in connection with the changing societal and historical circumstances in which theorists themselves work. In other words, this is a study in the sociology of knowledge; specifically, an examination of the social contexts of historical reinterpretation. The author deals with the subject, both by examining the empirical evidence which has been brought to bear upon theories of authors Hofstadter, Kolko, and Wiebe and by seeing how "incompatible" their conclusions really are.