In May of 1919, women from around the world gathered in Zurich,
Switzerland, and proclaimed, "We dedicate ourselves to peace!" Just
months after the end of World War I, the Womens International League for
Peace and Freedom--a group led by American progressive Jane Addams and
comprising veteran campaigners for social reform--knew that a peaceful
world was essential to their ongoing quest for social and economic
justice.
Alan Dawley tells the story of American progressives during the decade
spanning World War I and its aftermath. He shows how they laid the
foundation for progressive internationalism in their efforts to improve
the world both at home and abroad. Unlike other accounts of the
progressive movement--and of American politics in general--this book
fuses social and international history. Dawley shows how interventions
in Latin America and Europe affected domestic plans for social reform
and civic engagement, and he depicts internal battles among progressives
between unabashed imperialists like Theodore Roosevelt and their
implacable opponents like Robert La Follette. He draws a contrast
between Woodrow Wilson's use of force in exporting American ideals and
Addams's more cosmopolitan pursuit of economic justice and world peace.
In discussing the debate over the League of Nations within the context
of turbulent domestic affairs, Dawley brings keen insight into that
complicated moment in American history.
In striking and original ways, Dawley brings together domestic and world
affairs to argue that American progressivism cannot be understood apart
from its international context. Focusing on world-historical events of
empire, revolution, war, and peace, he shows how American reformers
invented a new politics built around progressive internationalism.
Changing the World retrieves the progressive tradition in American
politics and makes it available to contemporary debates. The book speaks
to anyone seeking to be both a good citizen within the nation and a good
citizen of today's troubled world.
