Relentless Reformer (ebook)

Argumento de Relentless Reformer (ebook)

"Muncy offers readers a biography of Progressive woman reformer-entrepreneur Josephine Roche, who has been largely overlooked by historians for her many contributions throughout the 20th century . . . [A] fine book."--Choice

"In her exemplary biography, Muncy never flinches from telling us the bad along with the good, drawing a portrait of a whole human being with profound lessons to teach."--Alice Kessler-Harris, Women’s Review of Books

"Josephine Roche finally has her due, thanks to Robyn Muncy's sparkling political biography. Policewoman and business owner, labor-relations and public-health pioneer, political insider and female outsider, Roche emerges warts and all as a slayer of inequality. More than an exercise in recovery, Relentless Reformer challenges conventional wisdom on the detrimental impact of private welfare on public programs as it charts the persistence of a democratic, state-centric progressivism over the course of the twentieth century."--Eileen Boris, Hull Professor of Feminist Studies, University of California, Santa Barbara

"Relentless Reformer brings to life one of this country's truly great twentieth-century feminists. A visionary who knew how to get things done, Josephine Roche worked with presidents, governors, and union leaders to achieve her ideal of industrial democracy. Robyn Muncy's masterful and page-turning biography should be required reading for all feminists and progressive reformers working today."--Sally Greenberg, executive director of the National Consumers League

"Muncy's deft interpretation of Josephine Roche's life takes us on a fascinating journey that sheds new light on the tenacious struggles between Left and Right, the uneven history of labor progressivism, and the enduring importance of personal networks in American politics. Relentless Reformer is a lively and important addition to the history of American political development in the twentieth century."--Kathryn Kish Sklar, author of Florence Kelley and the Nation's Work: The Rise of Women's Political Culture, 1830-1900

"This vividly told story of the brilliant and indomitable Josephine Roche becomes, in historian Muncy's capable hands, an illuminating window on the persistence of the progressive impulse that emerged in the Progressive Era, influenced Roosevelt's New Deal, and, Muncy argues, helped shape Lyndon Johnson's Great Society."--Wendy Williams, professor emerita, Georgetown University Law Center

"Relentless Reformer is a winning combination of excellent political history and well-crafted biography. Josephine Roche was a central figure in the history of twentieth-century reform, long deserving of a biography and by extension a larger claim on public memory. Luckily, we have Robyn Muncy to help us make sense of that life."--Susan Ware, general editor of the American National Biography

"Relentless Reformer is a very necessary addition to the reading list of any student of the history of the United States of America. For those of a non-academic nature it is a jolly good read. It takes a worthy place in the comprehensive series Politics and Society in Twentieth-century America."--Don Vincent, Open History Journal

"Muncy set out to return Roche to the prominence she deserves, while at the same time demonstrating how and why women’s contributions are often ignored and or forgotten. . . . She succeeded in accomplishing this, while writing an engaging and comprehensive biography."--Katherine G. Aiken, American Historical Review

"A model of biography as social and political history, Relentless Reformer tells the compelling story of one life as it shaped and exemplified a larger public life."--Barbara Melosh, Journal of American History0ACKNOWLEDGMENTS IX
INTRODUCTION 1
PART I FIRST BURST OF PROGRESSIVE REFORM: ROCHE'S APPRENTICESHIP, 1886-1918
1 Childhood in the West, Education in the East, 1886-1908 13
2 Aspiring Feminist and Social Science Progressive, 1908-1912 26
3 Emergence as a Public Leader, 1912-1913 42
4 Seeking Fundamentals: The Colorado Coal Strike, 1913-1914 64
5 "Part of It All One Must Become": Progressive in Wartime, 1915-1918 79
PART II FIRST TEMPORARY REVERSAL OF PROGRESSIVE REFORM: ROCHE'S NEW DEPARTURES, 1919-1932
6 Work and Love in a Progressive Ebb Tide, 1919-1927 97
7 Migrating to a "Totally New Planet": Roche Takes Over Rocky Mountain Fuel, 1927-1928 110
8 "Prophet of a New and Wiser Social Order," 1929-1932 126
PART III SECOND BURST OF PROGRESSIVE REFORM: HEIGHT OF ROCHE'S RENOWN, 1933-1948
9 Working with the New Deal from Colorado, 1933-1934 143
10 At the Center of Power: Roche in the New Deal Government, 1934-1939 162
11 Generating a National Debate about Federal Health Policy, 1935-1939 177
12 Unmoored during Wartime, 1939-1945 193
13 Becoming a Cold War Liberal, 1945-1948 211
PART IV SECOND TEMPORARY REVERSAL OF PROGRESSIVE REFORM: ROCHE BUILDS A PRIVATE WELFARE SYSTEM IN THE COALFIELDS, 1948-1963
14 Creating "New Values, New Realities" in the Coalfields, 1948-1956 227
15 Democratic Denials and Dissent at the Miners' Welfare Fund, 1957-1963 247
PART V THIRD BURST OF PROGRESSIVE REFORM: ROCHE RECLAIMS THE FULL PROGRESSIVE AGENDA, 1960-1976
16 Challenged and Redeemed by the New Progressivism, 1960-1972 265
17 Only Ten Minutes Left? Epilogue and Assessment 289
ABBREVIATIONS 297
NOTES 299
SELECT PRIMARY SOURCES 375
INDEX 379