ABSTRACT
The progressive era is an intriguing time to explore in a multifaceted way the nature and process of US state development. It was a time of great social ferment, and while there was not one "progressive movement," there were political upheavals among farmers, workers, and the middle classes that pressed new demands on the state. Progressive era is "society-centered" in the sense that initiative is attributed to social movements and "producer" coalitions—primarily, in this case, periphery farmers and their labor allies. Political action by large-scale capitalists is seen as principally negative and reactive, although their opposition was highly significant for policy outcomes. The Federal Reserve Act exemplifies a key trait of the progressive era agrarian agenda: their willingness to expand public power to an unprecedented degree in order to control the powerful forces of industrial capitalism to their own benefit—in short, to use their political power to compensate for economic weakness.
