After Progress

The twentieth century witnessed a profound shift in both socialism and social reform. In the early 1900s social reform seemed to offer a veritable religion of redemption but by the century''s end while socialism remained a vibrant force in European society a culture of extreme individualism and consumption all but squeezed the welfare state out of existence. Documenting this historic change After Progress: European Socialism and American Social Reform in the 20th Century is the first truly comprehensive look at the course of social reform and Western politics after Communism brilliantly explained by a major social thinker of our time. Norman Birnbaum traces in fascinating detail the forces that have shifted social concern over the course of a century from the devastation of two world wars to the post-war golden age of economic growth and democracy to the ever-increasing dominance of the market. He makes sense of the historical trends that have created a climate in which politicians proclaim the arrival of a new historical epoch but rarely offer solutions to social problems that get beyond cost-benefit analyses. Birnbaum goes one step further and proposes a strategy for bringing the market back into balance with the social needs of the people. He advocates a reconsideration of the notion of work urges that market forces be brought under political control and stresses the need for education that teaches the rights and responsibilities of citizenship. Both a sweeping historical survey and a sharp-edged commentary on current political posturing After Progress examines the state of social reform past present and future.