Inequalities and the Progressive Era

Breakthroughs and Legacies

Edited by Guillaume Vallet, Associate Professor in Economics, University of Grenoble Alpes, and Research Fellow at Centre de Recherche en Économie de Grenoble (CREG) and Institut de Recherche pour l’Economie Politique de l’Entreprise (IREPE), France and Associate Researcher, Institute of Sociological Research of Geneva, Switzerland

Inequalities and the Progressive Era features contributors from all corners of the world, each exploring a different type of inequality during the ‘Progressive Era’ (1890s-1930s). Though this era is most associated with the United States, it corresponds to a historical period in which profound changes and progress are realized or expected all over the globe.

‘Rising inequality in late 19th and early 20th centuries US led to the development between 1920 and 1980 of the most successful and ambitious progressive tax system ever experimented. If you want to know more about the intellectual roots of the progressive era, you should read this great collection of essays. A fascinating book.’
– Thomas Piketty, Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales and Paris School of Economics, France

‘This remarkable and carefully curated volume is an invaluable roadmap to the treatment of inequalities during the fascinating and often misunderstood Progressive Era. As Guillaume Vallet and his contributors argue there is much to be learned about this transformative era of political, economic, and social reform. Today, we confront a wide range of unacceptable inequalities. Academics, policymakers, and activists should look to this volume for inspiration as they design and advocate pathways out of the present morass.’
– Ilene Grabel, University of Denver, US

Although “The Progressive Era” is usually understood as the period from 1900 to 1917 in the United States during which major political, social, and economic reforms took place, the authors of the twenty-two essays about more than a dozen countries on five continents in this volume broaden the geographical and chronological (1890s-1930s) focus on similar reform activities. Current efforts to address the problem of increasing inequalities of wealth and income in our own time can benefit from the perspectives provided by these studies of a similar problem a century ago.’
– James M. McPherson, Princeton University, US and author of Battle Cry of Freedom; The Civil War Era