Customer Reviews

The Progressive Revolution: How the Best in America Came to Be

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This is a brilliant book by Democratic strategist and author Mike Lux. It documents the periods in our history when conservative domination led to progressive renewal. The Progressive Revolution: How the Best in America Came to Be, describes the five "big change" moments in American history since the American Revolution: the Bill of Rights, the ending of slavery, the Progressive Era, the New Deal and the civil rights movement.

Lux argues that big changes have never occurred gradually - nor have they been spread randomly over our history. Rather, they have been concentrated in these periods of "big change." In each, a cascade of progressive innovation took place over a short period of time, after years of right wing opposition.

He writes: "Progressives invented the American ideal and inspired the American Revolution. Conservatives, then known as Tories, opposed it. Since then, every major advancement in American freedom, democracy, social justice, and economic opportunity has been fostered, fought for, and won by progressives against conservative resistance. Now who's anti-American?"

Lux's message is especially appropriate today, as we cross the threshold of another period of "big change".

History will record that George W. Bush made one critically important contribution to our country - and to the entire world. He and his administration provided unquestionable proof of the bankruptcy of radical-conservative ideology, and set the stage for a qualitatively different progressive era in American politics.

History is not linear. It is not gradual or evolutionary. Human progress proceeds in fits and starts like a volcano, where pressure gradually builds over years and then erupts with enormous power.

Very often those explosions of progress - periods when we expand the realm of democratic values, human dignity, economic opportunity and optimism -- are precipitated by periods of domination by the forces of privilege, inequality and selfishness.

By assuring that all of the fruits of the growth of productivity in our economy went to the wealthiest 2% of our population, the Bush Administration set the stage for the current economic collapse.

By actually putting into practice the Neo-Conservative theories of pre-emptive war and unilateralism, George W. Bush demonstrated their failure more persuasively than could the most articulate progressive critic.

By abandoning our historic commitment to due process and sinking into the dark world of torture, George W. Bush and his partner Dick Cheney isolated themselves from the growing worldwide commitment to human rights.

The inauguration of Barack Obama has raised the curtain on - what could a transformational period - if we all make it so.

As for Bush, he will be remembered as the man who set the stage. He has played the Hoover to Obama's Roosevelt, the James Buchanan to Obama's Lincoln.

Lux's study also makes something else absolutely clear. In American history, the pendulum has not swung inevitably back and forth between conservative and progressive periods with some form of historic equivalency. Instead, the changes emerging from periods of progressive success, once made, remain a permanent feature of our society.

Conservatives fought against the ending of slavery, women's suffrage, Social Security, collective bargaining, Medicare, and the end of segregation. After the progressive period that brought them to life was done, a conservative backlash often tried to limit the scope of these important advances - with Jim Crow, assaults on Labor, or attempts to privatize Social Security. But conservatives have never been successful at eliminating them.

Once enacted, progressive change is hard to dislodge. That's because progressive change is progress. Progressive values are the most adaptive trait human beings have yet created to ensure our success and survival on this small planet.

The Right battled for decades to take complete control of the levers of power in Washington. The election of George W. Bush finally gave them the ability to combine the power of the Presidency with their control of Congress to make their program the law of the land.

Ironically, their very success may assure that George W. Bush is remembered as the President whose failures created the conditions we needed to craft a new bottom-up economy, to pass universal health care and to create new international institutions that bring us closer to a world where we no longer rely on war to resolve our differences.

Of course nothing is inevitable. We cannot afford to squander the opportunity that history and George W. Bush have provided us. Lux calls on all us to report for duty in the battle to turn this historic opportunity into the next great period of progress in America.

We often see books from the right-wing perspective that demonize "liberalism" and denigrate the role of government in fighting for the common good and bettering all of our lives. Unfortunately, we don't see nearly as many books, especially articulate, powerful and persuasive ones like "The Progressive Revolution," from the progressive perspective. Lucky for us, Mike Lux has written just such a book, and I strongly recommend that everyone read what he has to say.

The book's argument is simple: when progressives have been in charge, the country has made great strides; when conservatives have been in charge, we've stagnated or moved backwards. In fact, some of the greatest disasters or near-disasters in American history have come during periods of conservative ascendancy, and Mike Lux lays those out for all of us who need a history refresher course. What's most amazing is that, in spite of an almost unmitigated record of harming workers, family farms, the poor, the sick, the elderly, children, the environment, not to mention the freedoms we cherish, conservatives have managed to win even one election, let alone many of them. In part, this is a result of conservatives effectively making their case (even if it's based on fear and lies), but in part it's also the result of progressives failing to make their own, much stronger case.

That obviously needs to change, and Lux is hopeful that we'll see that in the Obama administration. However, nothing's automatic; what's required here is pressure from both the "top down" AND the "bottom up." Netroots activism, as I write in my own book ("Netroots Rising"), is the key today, just as it has been since Thomas Paine penned his brilliant pamphlet ("Common Sense") that made such an enormous contribution to the American revolution. Today, we have an army of "Thomas Paines" essentially functioning as modern-day pamphleteers. This reengagement with our Democracy, after years of alienation and cynicism, represents our greatest hope at achieving the positive "change we need." Read Mike Lux's book and discover why only progressives can deliver that change.

I have to admit I'm not much of a history buff, but Lux might just convert me into one. I bought this book as I define myself as progressive and am hopeful for change with Obama's administration. With a couple young kids, I have very little time for reading, but once I picked up Lux's book I had a hard time putting it down. It's a fascinating read, and is very relevant to my own little life and all those convoluted arguments swimming around in both the media today and in my brain. I get angry at neo-conservatives for their nonsensical tongue-lashings of "liberals", and Lux's book has helped delineate the arguments and put it all in historical context. Also, I feel ten times more patriotic after reading this book, and more connected with the goals of democracy and of this country than I ever have before. Pretty good for feeling disenfranchised for most of my life. The best part is that it reads like a true American novel as it has a happy ending. Well, I should say hopeful ending...

Buy it. Read it. Go out and change the world.

Lux gets a great many things right but a one important thing wrong.
By concentrating on five important moments in time Lux gives the appearance that change comes in fits and starts but reality is quite different. As an example, the civil rights movement did not end discrimination in housing as it was intended to do. Discrimination in housing was already supposed to be illegal before 1968 and just as people ignored the law in 1909 they ignored the law in 1979. Not until the 1990's did discrimination in housing actually begin to unravel. It is still in the process of unraveling. There was no specific time when such a change took place but rather it was (and still is) a gradual process. Historic change may seem to be punctuated by major events but real historic change takes time and comes incrementally. I wish it were otherwise as Lux claims but unfortunately it is not.
Other than this rather serious error the rest of the underlying book is quite good. The difference between Conservative and Liberals is basically one of how they wish to define their time and how they seek guidance. Conservatives generally look backward toward an idealized past for guidance and Liberals look forward toward an idealized future for guidance. Conservatives tend to find truths to be revealed while Liberals tend to see truths as constructed. Conservatives tend to see binary delineations (black or white / good or bad)when searching for answers while Liberals tend to see shades of grey and nuanced answers. These are of course generalities, not immutable sets of behaviours, but they hold true enough. This is of course the main reason Conservatives appear to be on the wrong end of so many issues. Revealed truths and an idealized past don't prepare one very well for the future.
One might be tempted to say that Liberalism has much to atone for and were it not for the fact that Conservatism has far more to atone for Liberalism might not look as good as it does. Ultimately it is humanity itself rather than Liberalism or Conservatism that has much to atone for but Conservatism has worked to the detriment of humanity far more often that Liberalism.
As one last note, the reviewer who believes that we should "not forget that throughout the twentieth century, many progressives looked starry-eyed on the Soviet Union as well. Many still do." would do well to know history a bit better.
I'm afraid the number of Liberals who looked wistfully at the USSR was always exceedingly small, even more so today. However the Conservatives who looked "starry-eyed" at Nazi Germany vastly outnumbered, both in 1939 and today, the Liberals who eyed the USSR.
Let's not forget that in more recent history Argentina was a Conservative showpiece while Pinochet was butchering people. The nun-raping child-killing Conservative backed Contra's shouldn't be forgotten any time soon either. Neither should Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Ecuador, Paraguay, Peru, and Uruguay. At one time or another since WWII they were all military dictatorship with the full blessing of Conservatives.
I won't minimize the role of US political Liberals in the above but these were, each and everyone one, a Conservative agenda writ large and were a reaction against Liberalism in those countries.

Mike Lux is a long-time progressive leader and astute observer of American politics who knows what he's writing about. In the post-Bush, early Obama Administration time that our nation has entered, this is the perfect read to stimulate thoughtful debate and action by citizens and elected officials alike. The progressive movement has played a great role in helping to address some of the most important and serious issues that have faced our country, and the time has come again to sound a clarion call for us all to participate in our democracy and work together to get this country moving forward again. Progressives need to not only propose solutions, but we need to band together and help provide leadership to get things back on track. Lux's book provides clear context for citizens seeking voices beyond the cable TV talking heads that are thinking about how to use our political system to get things done. It is well written, thoroughly researched and framed in the context that only a seasoned political activist like Lux can provide. Buy it, read it, then put this book's lessons to work!

Wow, I couldn't put this book down. The author does a great job of debunking the conservative hypocrisy we've been hearing for years. I wish I had this book in hand years ago when my college roommate was a Rush Limbaugh fan. This is an easy read but a wealth of information that I can't wait to further investigate.

Michael Lux, owner of the blog "Open Left" gives us a quick and accessible portrait of the successes of the progressive movement in this new book "The Progressive Revolution: How the Best in America Came to Be". Lux writes that he hopes that impassioned liberals and progressives will enjoy learning about their history, while conservatives will have their thinking exposed for the fallacies on which it is based. After reading the book, clearly Lux is writing to the first group, whereas I doubt a true conservative person will get within five miles of this book.

There were several parts of the book that I found myself taking down several notes; not that the content was new, but it was presented in a clear way and I wanted to remember. One clear thought I (who proudly and unabashedly proclaim myself to be both progressive AND liberal!) was intrigued with involved Lux's theory that the dynamics in the country for the past two hundred years has hinged on a concept most recently exposed in the latest presidential election: hope vs. fear. Lux states that conservative philosophy is based in fear (fear of the unknown, fear of the immigrant, fear of equality for women because they fear family breaking down, fear of African-Americans, fear of gays and lesbians, et. al), whereas progressive philosophy is based on hope. I bantered around that in my brain, and frankly, still am, because looking at American history through that lens is intriguing.

Lux also paints the Gettysburg Address as revolutionary for having a president suggest that the country is for the "people" and not the corporations or the elite. He goes on to say that the three most progressive "documents" in the country are Jefferson's Declaration of Independence, the Gettysburg Address, and MLK's "I Have a Dream" speech. Fascinating stuff.

Towards the later part of the book, Lux wanders away from his progressive vision to an increased bashing of conservatives on all fronts. While Bush earns no stars in my book, I don't feel that Lux bolstered his opinions by degrading those conservative opinions, no matter how foul I think they are. It became a bit cumbersome to read, and then relive, some of the more recent Bush administration fouls that we are still cleaning up today.

Fortunately, Lux picks up the tune again with both talking about the Obama campaign, as well as taking Democrats to the woodshed for becoming too cautious when it comes to progressive causes. In light of the health care reform package, hopefully that's an indicator that the era of timid Democrats has finally, finally come to and end. For that, I guess we can only "hope".

This is the best American history book I have ever read. It is short and to the point. And from a different point of view that is rarely heard from. It expressed exactly what I have been observing in my short 60 years of life. Public opinion and beliefs are rarely based in fact. It is instead based on the most often heard common opinion. Sad but true.

In the case of this book it speaks of what a progressive stands for and what they have fought for. It reminds us that the progressive role has been here since the inception of our country and has changed parties before and may change again. The explanation of state's rights is the best I've ever seen.

Lastly I was looking for lists of progressive accommplishments and Michael Lux does go that extra mile. Thank you Michael for giving me the facts to argue the case for why it is a good thing to be a progressive.

This book is wonderfully written and is a wonderful account of our history in the progressive position.

This is not a review but a comment. The negative reviews appear to be another attempt by right-wingers to pan a book they have not read and deal with history they know little or nothing about.