Hi folks.
So, anyway, I'm currently entering the final three weeks of my History 1301 course here at Cal State, San Jose, and, this week, we touched a little bit on the development of the Progressive ideology that began to develop in the 1880s.
IOTL, Progressivism was a philosophical movement active primarily between the 1880s and 1920s that promoted scientific and technological development to advance civilization-in a way, they were an early precursor to the Technocratic movement that was born in Japan and the U.K. in the '70s. But, what if Progressivism had been something different?
As many here may know, I'm a huge fan of Jonathan Sobel's For Want of a Ballot from 1976, and I've been a regular contributor to it's fan TL continuation, For All Time Forward, since 2001, writing under the pseudonym "Jack Jones"; prior to his death in 2010, Sobel himself occasionally stopped by the forum from time to time to offer some tidbits as to how he originally envisioned the TL.
His ATL version of *Progressivism was(and still is!) a favorite topic over there, and, as described by him, it was a wide-ranging political movement that sought to improve society for the benefit of all people, through the means of activism and reform(similar to the OTL Egalitarians in the Britain of the early 20th century, as well as the Liberty Movement after the Global War or the Muckrakers of the Teens and Twenties, right here in America), which did include some focused on scientific approaches, but others with a faith-based viewpoint(such as William Jennings Bryan, etc.) and even some socialist leaning, etc. people.
My question is, how might this "political Progressivism", as described in Sobel's TL, have worked IOTL, and would it have lasted some time, or fallen apart?
OOC: For Want of a Ballot & For All Time Forward, are essentially OTL; the POD for TTL is sometime in the middle of the 1870s and ITTL, the Democratic candidate wins instead of Rutherford Hayes.
Edit: And yes, I've been wanting to do this one for a while-interested to see the ideas that people may contribute in the coming days.....
So, anyway, I'm currently entering the final three weeks of my History 1301 course here at Cal State, San Jose, and, this week, we touched a little bit on the development of the Progressive ideology that began to develop in the 1880s.
IOTL, Progressivism was a philosophical movement active primarily between the 1880s and 1920s that promoted scientific and technological development to advance civilization-in a way, they were an early precursor to the Technocratic movement that was born in Japan and the U.K. in the '70s. But, what if Progressivism had been something different?
As many here may know, I'm a huge fan of Jonathan Sobel's For Want of a Ballot from 1976, and I've been a regular contributor to it's fan TL continuation, For All Time Forward, since 2001, writing under the pseudonym "Jack Jones"; prior to his death in 2010, Sobel himself occasionally stopped by the forum from time to time to offer some tidbits as to how he originally envisioned the TL.
His ATL version of *Progressivism was(and still is!) a favorite topic over there, and, as described by him, it was a wide-ranging political movement that sought to improve society for the benefit of all people, through the means of activism and reform(similar to the OTL Egalitarians in the Britain of the early 20th century, as well as the Liberty Movement after the Global War or the Muckrakers of the Teens and Twenties, right here in America), which did include some focused on scientific approaches, but others with a faith-based viewpoint(such as William Jennings Bryan, etc.) and even some socialist leaning, etc. people.
My question is, how might this "political Progressivism", as described in Sobel's TL, have worked IOTL, and would it have lasted some time, or fallen apart?
OOC: For Want of a Ballot & For All Time Forward, are essentially OTL; the POD for TTL is sometime in the middle of the 1870s and ITTL, the Democratic candidate wins instead of Rutherford Hayes.
Edit: And yes, I've been wanting to do this one for a while-interested to see the ideas that people may contribute in the coming days.....
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