The Triumph of Conservatism: A Reinterpretation of American History, 1900-1916

by Gabriel Kolko

Book Overview

A radically new interpretation of the Progressive Era which argues that business leaders, and not the reformers, inspired the era's legislation regarding business.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0029166500
• ISBN13: 9780029166505
• Release Date: March 1977
• Publisher: Free Press
• Length: 356 Pages
• Weight: 0.90 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.0" x 5.7" x 8.5"

Customer Reviews

A Reinterpretation of the "Progressive" Era and the Rise of Political Capitalism.

_The Triumph of Conservativism: A Reinterpretation of American History, 1900 - 1916_, subtitled "A radically new interpretation of the Progressive Era which argues that business leaders, and not the reformers, inspired the era's legislation regulating business", published in 1963 by the Free Press, by economic historian Gabriel Kolko, is a radical new interpretation of the reforms of the Progressive Era which attempts to show that the leaders of big business and not the reformers sought to regulate business to counteract the effects of competition and economic decentralization and to achieve concentration and monopoly. Gabriel Kolko (1932 - ) is a leading historian who has made an extensive study and reinterpretation of economic regulation and American militarism and was frequently associated with the New Left. Kolko's claims challenge the conventional wisdom which see business leaders as promoters of laissez-faire economics, by arguing instead that business leaders sought to regulate business so as to concentrate their power and avoid competition. This behavior has been termed "corporatism", but Kolko defines it to be "political capitalism" in this work. This book will focus primarily on the role of such business leaders and the corporations in the furthering of their interests through the power of the state. In another work, _Railroads and Regulation: 1877 - 1916_ (1965), Kolko focuses on the situation with the railroad monopolies so that is left out of this work. Kolko maintains that progressivism rather than being a fundamental movement for reform was actually a conservative movement aimed at furthering the goals of big business and for this reason he refers to the triumph of regulation as the "triumph of conservativism" and the "triumph of political capitalism". This book remains important for what it shows about the true nature of regulation and who really desires it. It can be seen that through regulation the corporations and monopolies are able to stifle competition and in that manner assure their continuing dominance. In his "Introduction" to this book, Kolko lays out his fundamental themes explaining that this is not a book about "what might have been" but rather a book about what really did happen. Kolko explains his understanding of "progressivism" which he defines as "a movement for the political rationalization of business and industrial conditions, a movement that operated on the assumption that the general welfare of the community could be best served by satisifying the concrete needs of business." Kolko explains how business interests sought to achieve control over politics in order to achieve their goal of "political capitalism" (which Kolko defines as "the utilization of political outlets to attain conditions of stability, predictability, and security - to attain rationalization - in the economy"). Kolko explains how business interests sought the intervention of the federal government in business and the return o

Historical explanation of the rise of Big Government

No book details the historical relationship between big business and the Federal government better than this one. Though confined merely to the so-called Progressive Era in American history (1901-1914), Kolko manages to overturn all the misconceptions about the formation of government regulation in America. Instead of accepting the standard view that federal regulation of business was inspired by the Progressive intellectuals and activist political leaders eager to put a check on the rising power of big business, Kolko shows that it was really inspired by the drive of businessman to limit competition and bring "stability" into the market. The result is what Kolko calls, appropriately enough, "political capitalism." Some earlier reviews have attempted to draw an ideological lesson from this book. This is a mistake. If there is a lesson to be drawn from Kolko's work, it is the failure of all ideologies (whether from the right, left, or center) to adequately explain the rise of political capitalism in America. Both the right and the left share the common assumption that government regulation hurts big business. Kolko proves that this isn't the case, that Big Business is in favor of regulation and the throttling of competition. Kolko's book is a must read for anyone who wants to understand what capitalism and politics is really all about.

Dispels myths about American business history

In this reinterpretation of the Progressive Era, Gabriel Kolko marshalls a host of historical sources from the National Archives, the Library of Congress and other great outposts of scholarship to advance a bold thesis: that the Progressive Era was a "triumph of conservatism," the business reforms of the time having been fought for and shaped by not only the reformers but also the very business interests that were to be regulated. Kolko is a socialist, and his case is actually more radical than I have indicated. But it is his dispelling of many widely believed myths that I find the most enticing. Take the "merger movement" at the turn of last century. It was and is popularly believed that competition was at an all-time low, monopoly an all-time high and Theodore Roosevelt's trust-busting the necessary and proper response. But Kolko proves this conventional belief false. In case studies of the big powerhouse industries of the time, he shows that, in spite of (or because of) the merger movement, they were more competitive than they had ever been. Whether the industry was steel, oil, automobiles, agricultural machinery, telephones, copper or meat-packing--Kolko's conclusion is the same: mergers, if anything, decreased companies' efficiency relative to their competitors. In the new century's first decade, the total number of competing firms in each industry grew; market shares of the dominant players, meanwhile, shrunk. As Kolko states, "There was *more* competition, and profits, if anything, declined. Most contemporary economists and many smaller businessmen failed to appreciate this fact, and historians have probably failed to recognize it altogether" (emphasis Kolko's). The stage thus set by the failure of the merger movement, Kolko moves on to the myth that Progressive Era reforms were uniformly or even predominantly opposed by their affected industries. The key is to realize that, economic strategies like corporate consolidation having failed, companies turned to political strategies to freeze the status quo or to gain new competitive advantages. As Kolko states, "the essential purpose and goal of any measure of importance in the Progressive Era was not merely endorsed by key representatives of businesses involved; rather such bills were first proposed by them." Food companies, for example, wanted the Food and Drug Act so that they could turn its regulations against their competitors (e.g., oleo versus butter). Big meat packers desired to save their industry from tainted meat, which hurt business, but were unable to ensure the quality of small packers' meat and unwilling to pay for independent meat inspection--so they themselves initiated the meat inspection movement, lobbied for and won passage of the Meat Inspection Act, thereby forcing inspection onto the industry and its costs onto the federal government. As for the Federal Reserve Act, it was the product of a banking reform movement "initiated and sustai

A rare book- close looks at history that change minds

I have read a good many books in my day- and economics books are my forte- but once in a while one comes along that truly are usefull in the rhetorical war that is politics. This is one of those books. The author makes the excellent point of the real history of the age that changed the lives of the American worker the most. By showing that business was the major progressive force of change, he puts to rest the notions that the era's mounting social capitol were hard won gains by progressive forces. This book is central to the argument that the trrue revolutionary forces that have become mete and standard throughout the ages have come from the most revolutionary force in history- that of capitalism.

a brilliant revisionist look at the Progressive Era

Kolko does an excellent job of making the case that business regulations enacted during the Progressive Era (1900-1916) were due not to liberal reformers, but big business itself! From meat industry regulations to the FTC and the Federal Reserve Board, Kolko shows over and over again how industries sought Federal regulation in order to protect themselves from competition or secure other advantages.Whether you're liberal, conservative or libertarian, this book is a must-read for understanding the relationship between government and big business.