“Some Necessary Iconoclasm”: Contesting Liberty in the Progressive Era

During the Progressive Era, academics and theorists in positions of substantial institutional power engaged in an intellectual shift against the prevailing American political culture by challenging the ontological nature of liberty and the state. Owing to the belief that individuals were social creatures who could not exist outside of an organized society, these theorists rejected the theoretical underpinnings of natural rights and personal liberty and reconceived of freedom as something that was socially constituted rather than individually focused. Liberty was repositioned as a way for individuals to be the best members of society, not to pursue their own ends absent a restraining force. These intellectuals imagined a dynamic, progressive democracy that would respond to changing social and economic circumstances rather than a fixed constitution that protected individual and minority rights. In practice, reformers used this intellectual and linguistic shift to legitimize the era’s many moral crusades. They framed vices such as alcohol, cigarettes, and prostitution as deleterious to the socially constituted freedoms of the community and warranting the intervention of police power. Though progressive reformers were met with mixed success, the theoretical shift away from natural rights left a lasting legacy in the American political landscape.