Progressive New World: How Settler Colonialism and Transpacific Exchange Shaped American Reform How Settler Colonialism and Transpacific Exchange Shaped American Reform

The paradox of progressivism continues to fascinate more than one hundred years on. Democratic but elitist, emancipatory but coercive, advanced and assimilationist, Progressivism was defined by its contradictions. In a bold new argument, Marilyn Lake points to the significance of turn-of-the-twentieth-century exchanges between American and Australasian reformers who shared racial sensibilities, along with a commitment to forging an ideal social order. Progressive New World demonstrates that race and reform were mutually supportive as Progressivism became the political logic of settler colonialism. White settlers in the United States, who saw themselves as path-breakers and pioneers, were inspired by the state experiments of Australia and New Zealand that helped shape their commitment to an active state, women’s and workers’ rights, mothers’ pensions, and child welfare. Both settler societies defined themselves as New World, against Old World feudal and aristocratic societies and Indigenous peoples deemed backward and primitive. In conversations, conferences, correspondence, and collaboration, transpacific networks were animated by a sense of racial kinship and investment in social justice. While “Asiatics” and “Blacks” would be excluded, segregated, or deported, Indians and Aborigines would be assimilated or absorbed. The political mobilizations of Indigenous progressives—in the Society of American Indians and the Australian Aborigines’ Progressive Association—testified to the power of Progressive thought but also to its repressive underpinnings. Burdened by the legacies of dispossession and displacement, Indigenous reformers sought recognition and redress in differently imagined new worlds and thus redefined the meaning of Progressivism itself. In Progressive New World, Marilyn Lake Seeks To Explain The Paradoxes Of Progressive Reform In The United States And Australia In The Late Nineteenth And Early Twentieth Centuries, When Democratic Practices Such As Women's And Workers' Rights, Children's Welfare, And Indigenous Assimilation Existed Alongside Racial Segregation And Oppression Of Indigenous Peoples. Lake Demonstrates The Critical Importance Of Settler Colonialism And Its Attitudes Toward Native Inhabitants In Forming White Settlers' Mindsets Of Racial Solidarity In Both American And Australian Societies. Progressive New World Suggests That The Very Idea Of Progressivism Rested On Temporal Distinctions Between Old World (feudal And Monarchic) And New World (democratic) Societies And Concomitant Racialized Distinctions Between Settlers And Indigenous Peoples-deemed Either Advanced Or Backward, Civilized Or Primitive, In A Framework That Cast The Past As Inherently Oppressive And The Future As A Place Of Inevitable Evolutionary Advancement. Lake Demonstrates The Force Of Progressive Thinking, But Also Its Limits.-- Introduction: Settler Colonialism And Progressivism -- Self-government, Democracy, And White Manhood -- An Expansive State With Socialistic Tendencies -- Purifying Politics Through Electoral Reform -- Federal Idealism And Labor Realism -- Woman Suffrage As An Object Lesson -- Mothers Of The Nation -- Labor Investigators Cross The Pacific -- Indigenous Progressivism Calls Settler Colonialism To Account. Marilyn Lake. Includes Bibliographical References (pages 253-295) And Index. "In Progressive New World, Marilyn Lake seeks to explain the paradoxes of Progressive reform in the United States and Australia in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, when democratic practices such as women's and workers' rights, children's welfare, and indigenous assimilation existed alongside racial segregation and oppression of indigenous peoples. Lake demonstrates the critical importance of settler colonialism and its attitudes toward native inhabitants in forming white settlers' mindsets of racial solidarity in both American and Australian societies. Progressive New World suggests that the very idea of "progressivism" rested on temporal distinctions between Old World (feudal and monarchic) and New World (democratic) societies and concomitant racialized distinctions between settlers and indigenous peoples-deemed either "advanced" or "backward," "civilized" or "primitive," in a framework that cast the past as inherently oppressive and the future as a place of inevitable evolutionary advancement. Lake demonstrates the force of progressive thinking, but also its limits"-- Provided by publisher Cover Title Page Copyright Dedication Contents Introduction: Settler Colonialism and Progressivism 1. Self-Government, Democracy, and White Manhood 2. An Expansive State with Socialistic Tendencies 3. Purifying Politics through Electoral Reform 4. Federal Idealism and Labor Realism 5. Woman Suffrage as an Object Lesson 6. Mothers of the Nation 7. Labor Investigators Cross the Pacific 8. Indigenous Progressivism Calls Settler Colonialism to Account Abbreviations Notes Acknowledgments Index

In a bold argument, Marilyn Lake shows that race and reform were mutually supportive as Progressivism became the political logic of settler colonialism at the turn of the 20th century. She points to exchanges between American and Australasian reformers who shared racial sensibilities, along with a commitment to forging an ideal social order.