Uncertain Victory: Social Democracy and Progressivism in European and American Thought, 1870-1920Between 1870 and 1920, two generations of European and American intellectuals created a transatlantic community of philosophical and political discourse. Uncertain Victory, the first comparative study of ideas and politics in France, Germany, the U.S., and Great Britain during these fifty years, demonstrates how a number of thinkers from different traditions converged to create the theoretical foundations for new programs of social democracy and progressivism. Kloppenberg studies a wide range of pivotal theorists and activists--including philosophers such as William James, Wilhelm Dilthey, and T. H. Green, democratic socialists such as Jean Jaurès, Walter Rauschenbusch, Eduard Bernstein, and Beatrice and Sidney Webb, and social theorists such as John Dewey and Max Weber--as he establishes the connection between the philosophers' challenges to the traditions of empiricism and idealism and the activists' opposition to the traditions of laissez-faire liberalism and revolutionary socialism. By demonstrating a link between a philosophy of self-conscious uncertainty and a politics of continuing democratic experimentation, and by highlighting previously unrecognized similarities among a number of prominent 19th- and 20th-century thinkers, Uncertain Victory is sure to spur a reassessment of the relationship between ideas and politics on both sides of the Atlantic. |
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action activity American analysis argued argument believed Bernstein Bourgeois British bureaucratic challenge conception consciousness critical critique Croly Croly's cultural democracy Dewey Dewey's Dilthey Dilthey's discussion economic Eduard Bernstein emphasized empiricist epistemology essay Evolutionary Socialism Fabian Fabian Society Fouillée Fouillée's France freedom French German Green Hegel historical sensibility Hobhouse Hobhouse's human ideal idealist ideas idées-forces individual industrial intellectual interpretation James's Jaurès Jaurès's Kant Kant's L. T. Hobhouse labor liberal Lippmann logic Marx Marx's Marxists Max Weber means Methods of Ethics moral nature nineteenth century party philosophy political pragmatic Preface to Politics Principles of Psychology problem progressive progressivism radical empiricism Rauschenbusch religious responsibility revolution revolutionary role Sidgwick Sidney Webb social democrats social gospel socialist society Sociology solidarity theory of knowledge thinkers thought tion truth utilitarianism values via media Webbs Wilhelm Dilthey William James writings wrote York