A brief, interpretive analysis of the highly ambitious American reform movements from the 1890s to 1917 that shows progressivism to have been a vital and significant phenomenon although there was no unified progressive movement. Link and McCormick succeed in making the events comprehensible while at the same time conveying a strong sense of the complexity and contradictions of the era.
"Link and McCormick have covered a vast area, compressing much information into a short space with no sense of the scissor-and-paste technique. Students should be stimulated to read more deeply; teachers familiar with the period and the literature will be impressed, perhaps dismayed, at how well the authors summarize in a clear paragraph or two what it takes some of us several weeks to get through in class."--Paul L. Silver, Teaching History, Volume 9, No. 1, Spring 1984
