Difference between revisions of "Herbert Croly"
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| + | {{Infobox person | ||
| + | | name = Herbert Croly | ||
| + | | image = Herbert Croly.jpg | ||
| + | | birth_date = January 23, 1869 | ||
| + | | birth_place = New York City | ||
| + | | death_date = May 17, 1930 | ||
| + | | death_place = Santa Barbara, California | ||
| + | | nationality = American | ||
| + | | spouse = Louise Emory | ||
| + | | religion = | ||
| + | }} | ||
'''Herbert David Croly''', (January 23, 1869 - May 17, 1930) a leader of the [[Progressive Movement]]<ref name=apostle>{{cite web |last1=Pearson |first1=Sidney |url=http://www.heritage.org/research/reports/2013/03/herbert-croly-progressive-apostle |title=Herbert D. Croly: Apostle of Progressivism |work=[[Heritage Foundation]] |date=March 14, 2013 }}</ref> as an editor, and political philosopher and a co-founder of the magazine [[The New Republic]]. His book, ''[[The Promise of American Life]]'' (1909) looked to the conservative spirit of effective government as espoused by [[Alexander Hamilton]], combined with the democracy of [[Thomas Jefferson]]. The book was one of the most influential books in American political history, shaping the ideas of many Progressives such as [[Theodore Roosevelt]]. It also influenced the later [[New Deal]]. Calling themselves "the new nationalists" Croly and Walter Weyl sought to remedy the relatively weak national institutions with a strong federal government. He actively promoted a strong army and navy and attacked pacifists who thought democracy at home and peace abroad was best served by keeping America weak. | '''Herbert David Croly''', (January 23, 1869 - May 17, 1930) a leader of the [[Progressive Movement]]<ref name=apostle>{{cite web |last1=Pearson |first1=Sidney |url=http://www.heritage.org/research/reports/2013/03/herbert-croly-progressive-apostle |title=Herbert D. Croly: Apostle of Progressivism |work=[[Heritage Foundation]] |date=March 14, 2013 }}</ref> as an editor, and political philosopher and a co-founder of the magazine [[The New Republic]]. His book, ''[[The Promise of American Life]]'' (1909) looked to the conservative spirit of effective government as espoused by [[Alexander Hamilton]], combined with the democracy of [[Thomas Jefferson]]. The book was one of the most influential books in American political history, shaping the ideas of many Progressives such as [[Theodore Roosevelt]]. It also influenced the later [[New Deal]]. Calling themselves "the new nationalists" Croly and Walter Weyl sought to remedy the relatively weak national institutions with a strong federal government. He actively promoted a strong army and navy and attacked pacifists who thought democracy at home and peace abroad was best served by keeping America weak. | ||
In his 1914 book ''Progressive Democracy,'' Croly contested the thesis that the liberal tradition in the United States was inhospitable to anticapitalist alternatives. He drew from the American past a history of resistance to capitalist wage relations that was fundamentally liberal, and he reclaimed an idea that Progressives had allowed to lapse - that working for wages was a lesser form of liberty. Increasingly skeptical of the capacity of social welfare legislation to remedy social ills, Croly argued that America's liberal promise could be redeemed only by syndicalist reforms involving workplace democracy. O'Leary (1994) shows his liberal goals were subordinate to his commitment to [[republicanism]]. | In his 1914 book ''Progressive Democracy,'' Croly contested the thesis that the liberal tradition in the United States was inhospitable to anticapitalist alternatives. He drew from the American past a history of resistance to capitalist wage relations that was fundamentally liberal, and he reclaimed an idea that Progressives had allowed to lapse - that working for wages was a lesser form of liberty. Increasingly skeptical of the capacity of social welfare legislation to remedy social ills, Croly argued that America's liberal promise could be redeemed only by syndicalist reforms involving workplace democracy. O'Leary (1994) shows his liberal goals were subordinate to his commitment to [[republicanism]]. | ||
| − | ==Early | + | ==Early life== |
| − | Croly was born in New York City on January 23, 1869, to David and Jane Croly.<ref name=apostle /> His father [[David Croly]] was a devoted [[Auguste Comte|Comtist]] and raised Herbert that way.<ref>{{cite book|last1=Croly|first1=Herbert|title=Memories of Jane Cunningham Croly, "Jenny June". ''From a Testimonial by Herbert D. Croly''|date=1904|publisher=G. P. Putnam's Sons|location=New York|pages=61–63}}</ref> | + | Croly was born in New York City on January 23, 1869, to David and Jane Croly.<ref name=apostle /> His father [[David Goodman Croly]] was a devoted [[Auguste Comte|Comtist]] and raised Herbert that way.<ref>{{cite book|last1=Croly|first1=Herbert|title=Memories of Jane Cunningham Croly, "Jenny June". ''From a Testimonial by Herbert D. Croly''|date=1904|publisher=G. P. Putnam's Sons|location=New York|pages=61–63}}</ref> |
| + | |||
| + | ==Education== | ||
| + | In 1884<ref>[https://books.google.com/books?id=VLr_AwAAQBAJ&pg=PA44 Herbert Croly of the New Republic: The Life and Thought of an American]</ref> he enrolled in classes at City College in New York, at age 15. By the time he was 18, he left for Cambridge to enroll at Harvard. Due to his father's failing health, he did not stay. | ||
| + | |||
| + | In 1892, he again enrolled in Harvard.<ref>[https://books.google.com/books?id=FwbOk4gLyWwC&pg=PA89 "The Challenge of Our Time": Woodrow Wilson, Herbert Croly, Randolph Bourne and the Making of Modern America]</ref> He met his wife Louise Emory in that same year.<ref>[https://books.google.com/books?id=Eb03DQAAQBAJ&pg=PT6 A Study Guide for Herbert Croly's "The Promise of American Life"]</ref> | ||
==Rights== | ==Rights== | ||
| − | Croly called for the adoption of Hamiltonian means to achieve Jeffersonian ends. To achieve this synthesis, however, Croly rejected Hamilton's arguments for institutional checks on a pure national democracy, and Jefferson's arguments for limited government. Croly rejected these limits because he saw them as too closely tied to the doctrine of individual rights. Croly wanted to transcend the doctrine of individual rights in order to create a national political community, one that would be forged by a strong but democratic national government. Howewer, Croly failed to see the connection between Jefferson's belief in democracy and his belief in limited government, and he failed to see the connection between Hamilton's belief in a strong national government and his call for institutional checks on democracy. Thus, although many American reform movements have their roots in the rhetoric of Croly's progressivism, to be effective they have had to accommodate the principles of liberal individualism that Croly wished to eradicate.<ref>David K. Nichols, "The Promise of Progressivism: Herbert Croly and the Progressive Rejection of Individual Rights" ''Publius'' 1987 17(2): 27-39</ref> | + | Croly called for the adoption of Hamiltonian means to achieve Jeffersonian ends. To achieve this synthesis, however, Croly rejected Hamilton's arguments for institutional checks on a pure national democracy, and Jefferson's arguments for limited government. Croly rejected these limits because he saw them as too closely tied to the doctrine of individual rights, and he believed state power should come in front of individual rights.<ref>[https://books.google.com/books?id=33uupwdgNLgC&pg=PA110 The American State from the Civil War to the New Deal: The Twilight of Constitutionalism and the Triumph of Progressivism]</ref> Croly wanted to transcend the doctrine of individual rights in order to create a national political community, one that would be forged by a strong but democratic national government. Howewer, Croly failed to see the connection between Jefferson's belief in democracy and his belief in limited government, and he failed to see the connection between Hamilton's belief in a strong national government and his call for institutional checks on democracy. Thus, although many American reform movements have their roots in the rhetoric of Croly's progressivism, to be effective they have had to accommodate the principles of liberal individualism that Croly wished to eradicate.<ref>David K. Nichols, "The Promise of Progressivism: Herbert Croly and the Progressive Rejection of Individual Rights" ''Publius'' 1987 17(2): 27-39</ref> |
==Influence== | ==Influence== | ||
| Line 16: | Line 32: | ||
==Later Revisionism== | ==Later Revisionism== | ||
| − | Starting in the 40's, some authors tried to distance progressive ideology from Croly's views(specifically in regard to the book ''Promise of American Life''), and instead re-cast them as having underlying tones of totalitarianism or fascism<ref>{{cite journal |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=FTAQAAAAIAAJ&dq=dilemma |last=Filler |first=Louis |date=1948 |title=The Dilemma, So-Called, of the American Liberal |journal=Antioch Review |volume=8 |pages= | + | Starting in the 40's, some authors tried to distance progressive ideology from Croly's views(specifically in regard to the book ''Promise of American Life''), and instead re-cast them as having underlying tones of totalitarianism or fascism,<ref>{{cite journal |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=FTAQAAAAIAAJ&dq=dilemma |last=Filler |first=Louis |date=1948 |title=The Dilemma, So-Called, of the American Liberal |journal=Antioch Review |volume=8 |pages=140–141 }}</ref> not progressivism. |
| + | |||
| + | ==Quotes== | ||
| + | * "Public opinion can no longer be hypnotized and scared into accepting the traditional constitutionalism, as the final word in politics." - Progressive Democracy, p. 25 | ||
==Further reading== | ==Further reading== | ||
| − | * Dexter, Byron. "Herbert Croly and the Promise of American Life," ''Political Science Quarterly,'' Vol. 70, No. 2 (Jun., 1955), pp. | + | * Dexter, Byron. "Herbert Croly and the Promise of American Life," ''Political Science Quarterly,'' Vol. 70, No. 2 (Jun., 1955), pp. 197–218 [http://www.jstor.org/stable/2145222 in JSTOR] |
| − | * Jaenicke, Douglas Walter. "Herbert Croly, Progressive Ideology, and the FTC Act," ''Political Science Quarterly,'' Vol. 93, No. 3 (Autumn, 1978), pp. | + | * Jaenicke, Douglas Walter. "Herbert Croly, Progressive Ideology, and the FTC Act," ''Political Science Quarterly,'' Vol. 93, No. 3 (Autumn, 1978), pp. 471–493 [http://www.jstor.org/stable/2149536 in JSTOR] |
* Katz, Claudio J. "Syndicalist Liberalism: the Normative Economics of Herbert Croly." ''History of Political Thought'' 2001 22(4): 669-702 | * Katz, Claudio J. "Syndicalist Liberalism: the Normative Economics of Herbert Croly." ''History of Political Thought'' 2001 22(4): 669-702 | ||
* Levy, David W. ''Herbert Croly of The New Republic: The Life and Thought of an American Progressive'' (1985) | * Levy, David W. ''Herbert Croly of The New Republic: The Life and Thought of an American Progressive'' (1985) | ||
| − | * O'Leary, Kevin C. "Herbert Croly & Progressive Democracy," ''Polity'', Vol. 26, No. 4 (Summer, 1994), pp. | + | * O'Leary, Kevin C. "Herbert Croly & Progressive Democracy," ''Polity'', Vol. 26, No. 4 (Summer, 1994), pp. 533–552 [http://www.jstor.org/stable/3235094 in JSTOR] |
* Stettner, Edward A. ''Shaping Modern Liberalism: Herbert Croly and Progressive Thought'' (1993) [http://www.amazon.com/Shaping-Modern-Liberalism-Herbert-Progressive/dp/0700605800 excerpt and text search] | * Stettner, Edward A. ''Shaping Modern Liberalism: Herbert Croly and Progressive Thought'' (1993) [http://www.amazon.com/Shaping-Modern-Liberalism-Herbert-Progressive/dp/0700605800 excerpt and text search] | ||
* Forcey, Charles. [https://archive.org/details/crossroadsoflibe007335mbp ''The Crossroads Of Liberalism: Croly, Weyl, Lippmann, And The Progressive Era 1900-1925''] (1961), on [[archive.org]] | * Forcey, Charles. [https://archive.org/details/crossroadsoflibe007335mbp ''The Crossroads Of Liberalism: Croly, Weyl, Lippmann, And The Progressive Era 1900-1925''] (1961), on [[archive.org]] | ||
| + | * Moreno, Paul D. (2013), pp. 110–113 [https://books.google.com/books?id=33uupwdgNLgC&printsec=frontcover&source=gbs_ge_summary_r&cad=0#v=onepage&q&f=false The American State from the Civil War to the New Deal: The Twilight of Constitutionalism and the Triumph of Progressivism] | ||
===Primary sources=== | ===Primary sources=== | ||
| Line 31: | Line 51: | ||
* Croly, Herbert. ''Progressive Democracy'' (1914) [http://books.google.com/books?id=QBUpAAAAYAAJ&dq=inauthor:herbert+inauthor:croly&lr=&as_drrb_is=q&as_minm_is=0&as_miny_is=&as_maxm_is=0&as_maxy_is=&num=30&as_brr=1 full text online] | * Croly, Herbert. ''Progressive Democracy'' (1914) [http://books.google.com/books?id=QBUpAAAAYAAJ&dq=inauthor:herbert+inauthor:croly&lr=&as_drrb_is=q&as_minm_is=0&as_miny_is=&as_maxm_is=0&as_maxy_is=&num=30&as_brr=1 full text online] | ||
* Croly, Herbert. ''Marcus Alonso Hanna: His Life and Work'' [http://books.google.com/books?id=jtJBAAAAIAAJ&dq=inauthor:herbert+inauthor:croly&lr=&as_drrb_is=q&as_minm_is=0&as_miny_is=&as_maxm_is=0&as_maxy_is=&num=30&as_brr=1 full text online](1912), favorable biography of the leading conservative politician | * Croly, Herbert. ''Marcus Alonso Hanna: His Life and Work'' [http://books.google.com/books?id=jtJBAAAAIAAJ&dq=inauthor:herbert+inauthor:croly&lr=&as_drrb_is=q&as_minm_is=0&as_miny_is=&as_maxm_is=0&as_maxy_is=&num=30&as_brr=1 full text online](1912), favorable biography of the leading conservative politician | ||
| − | * Croly, Herbert. "The Effect on American Institutions of a Powerful Military and Naval Establishment," ''Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science'', Vol. 66, (July 1916), pp. | + | * Croly, Herbert. "The Effect on American Institutions of a Powerful Military and Naval Establishment," ''Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science'', Vol. 66, (July 1916), pp. 157–172 [http://www.jstor.org/stable/1013440 in JSTOR] |
| − | * Croly, Herbert. "State Political Reorganization," ''Proceedings of the American Political Science Association,'' Vol. 8, Eighth Annual Meeting (1911), pp. | + | * Croly, Herbert. "State Political Reorganization," ''Proceedings of the American Political Science Association,'' Vol. 8, Eighth Annual Meeting (1911), pp. 122–135 [http://www.jstor.org/stable/3038400 in JSTOR] |
| + | |||
| + | ==See also== | ||
| + | * [[The Promise of American Life]] | ||
| + | * [[Randolph Bourne]] | ||
| − | + | ==References== | |
| − | + | {{reflist|2}} | |
| − | [[Category: Progressive Era]] | + | [[Category:Progressive Era]] |
{{DEFAULTSORT:Croly, Herbert}} | {{DEFAULTSORT:Croly, Herbert}} | ||
Revision as of 17:12, September 4, 2017
| Herbert Croly | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| |||
| Born | January 23, 1869 New York City | ||
| Died | May 17, 1930 Santa Barbara, California | ||
| Spouse | Louise Emory | ||
Herbert David Croly, (January 23, 1869 - May 17, 1930) a leader of the Progressive Movement[1] as an editor, and political philosopher and a co-founder of the magazine The New Republic. His book, The Promise of American Life (1909) looked to the conservative spirit of effective government as espoused by Alexander Hamilton, combined with the democracy of Thomas Jefferson. The book was one of the most influential books in American political history, shaping the ideas of many Progressives such as Theodore Roosevelt. It also influenced the later New Deal. Calling themselves "the new nationalists" Croly and Walter Weyl sought to remedy the relatively weak national institutions with a strong federal government. He actively promoted a strong army and navy and attacked pacifists who thought democracy at home and peace abroad was best served by keeping America weak.
In his 1914 book Progressive Democracy, Croly contested the thesis that the liberal tradition in the United States was inhospitable to anticapitalist alternatives. He drew from the American past a history of resistance to capitalist wage relations that was fundamentally liberal, and he reclaimed an idea that Progressives had allowed to lapse - that working for wages was a lesser form of liberty. Increasingly skeptical of the capacity of social welfare legislation to remedy social ills, Croly argued that America's liberal promise could be redeemed only by syndicalist reforms involving workplace democracy. O'Leary (1994) shows his liberal goals were subordinate to his commitment to republicanism.
Contents
Early life
Croly was born in New York City on January 23, 1869, to David and Jane Croly.[1] His father David Goodman Croly was a devoted Comtist and raised Herbert that way.[2]
Education
In 1884[3] he enrolled in classes at City College in New York, at age 15. By the time he was 18, he left for Cambridge to enroll at Harvard. Due to his father's failing health, he did not stay.
In 1892, he again enrolled in Harvard.[4] He met his wife Louise Emory in that same year.[5]
Rights
Croly called for the adoption of Hamiltonian means to achieve Jeffersonian ends. To achieve this synthesis, however, Croly rejected Hamilton's arguments for institutional checks on a pure national democracy, and Jefferson's arguments for limited government. Croly rejected these limits because he saw them as too closely tied to the doctrine of individual rights, and he believed state power should come in front of individual rights.[6] Croly wanted to transcend the doctrine of individual rights in order to create a national political community, one that would be forged by a strong but democratic national government. Howewer, Croly failed to see the connection between Jefferson's belief in democracy and his belief in limited government, and he failed to see the connection between Hamilton's belief in a strong national government and his call for institutional checks on democracy. Thus, although many American reform movements have their roots in the rhetoric of Croly's progressivism, to be effective they have had to accommodate the principles of liberal individualism that Croly wished to eradicate.[7]
Influence
Croly's book The Promise of American Life was sent by his friend Learned Hand to Theodore Roosevelt.[8]
Death and Legacy
Croly's influence on progressive ideology was far reaching. He passed away in Santa Barbara, California on May 17, 1930.[1] Despite this, many historians believe that he also influenced the New Deal, in addition to his aforesaid influence upon FDR's fifth cousin Theodore.[9]
Later Revisionism
Starting in the 40's, some authors tried to distance progressive ideology from Croly's views(specifically in regard to the book Promise of American Life), and instead re-cast them as having underlying tones of totalitarianism or fascism,[10] not progressivism.
Quotes
- "Public opinion can no longer be hypnotized and scared into accepting the traditional constitutionalism, as the final word in politics." - Progressive Democracy, p. 25
Further reading
- Dexter, Byron. "Herbert Croly and the Promise of American Life," Political Science Quarterly, Vol. 70, No. 2 (Jun., 1955), pp. 197–218 in JSTOR
- Jaenicke, Douglas Walter. "Herbert Croly, Progressive Ideology, and the FTC Act," Political Science Quarterly, Vol. 93, No. 3 (Autumn, 1978), pp. 471–493 in JSTOR
- Katz, Claudio J. "Syndicalist Liberalism: the Normative Economics of Herbert Croly." History of Political Thought 2001 22(4): 669-702
- Levy, David W. Herbert Croly of The New Republic: The Life and Thought of an American Progressive (1985)
- O'Leary, Kevin C. "Herbert Croly & Progressive Democracy," Polity, Vol. 26, No. 4 (Summer, 1994), pp. 533–552 in JSTOR
- Stettner, Edward A. Shaping Modern Liberalism: Herbert Croly and Progressive Thought (1993) excerpt and text search
- Forcey, Charles. The Crossroads Of Liberalism: Croly, Weyl, Lippmann, And The Progressive Era 1900-1925 (1961), on archive.org
- Moreno, Paul D. (2013), pp. 110–113 The American State from the Civil War to the New Deal: The Twilight of Constitutionalism and the Triumph of Progressivism
Primary sources
- Croly, Herbert. The Promise of American Life (1909) full text online, one of the most influential books of the early 20th century
- Croly, Herbert. Progressive Democracy (1914) full text online
- Croly, Herbert. Marcus Alonso Hanna: His Life and Work full text online(1912), favorable biography of the leading conservative politician
- Croly, Herbert. "The Effect on American Institutions of a Powerful Military and Naval Establishment," Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, Vol. 66, (July 1916), pp. 157–172 in JSTOR
- Croly, Herbert. "State Political Reorganization," Proceedings of the American Political Science Association, Vol. 8, Eighth Annual Meeting (1911), pp. 122–135 in JSTOR
See also
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 Herbert D. Croly: Apostle of Progressivism. Heritage Foundation (March 14, 2013).
- ↑ (1904) Memories of Jane Cunningham Croly, "Jenny June". From a Testimonial by Herbert D. Croly. New York: G. P. Putnam's Sons, 61–63.
- ↑ Herbert Croly of the New Republic: The Life and Thought of an American
- ↑ "The Challenge of Our Time": Woodrow Wilson, Herbert Croly, Randolph Bourne and the Making of Modern America
- ↑ A Study Guide for Herbert Croly's "The Promise of American Life"
- ↑ The American State from the Civil War to the New Deal: The Twilight of Constitutionalism and the Triumph of Progressivism
- ↑ David K. Nichols, "The Promise of Progressivism: Herbert Croly and the Progressive Rejection of Individual Rights" Publius 1987 17(2): 27-39
- ↑ (2013) Reason and Imagination: The Selected Correspondence of Learned Hand. OUP USA, 14–15.
- ↑ The Politics of Upheaval: 1935-1936, the Age of Roosevelt, Volume III, Arthur M. Schlesinger, Jr.
- ↑ Filler, Louis (1948). "The Dilemma, So-Called, of the American Liberal". Antioch Review 8: 140–141. https://books.google.com/books?id=FTAQAAAAIAAJ&dq=dilemma.
