As of 2005, Herbert Croly’s The Promise of American Life, first published in 1909, had gone through eleven different printings, from a variety of publishing houses, suggesting its enduring stature as an American classic. The book had an acknowledged influence on early to mid-twentieth-century American politics and political thought. Theodore Roosevelt read the book after he left the White House and, when he decided to run for another term as president in 1912, used Croly’s themes in his campaign. After Willard and Dorothy Straight read the book, they contacted Croly, and brought him together with Walter Lippmann and Walter Weyl to edit the journal they founded in 1914—The New Republic. In 1961, Charles Forcey announced, in The Crossroads of Liberalism, that “Croly’s Promise of American Life of 1909 has become the prevailing political faith of most Americans.” Following Franklin Roosevelt’s Croly-inspired New Deal, the New Frontier and the Great Society of John Kennedy and Lyndon Johnson seemed, by the 1960s, to have confirmed Forcey’s assessment and thus Croly’s ascendant place in American politics.
While the rise of a notable conservative backlash to American liberalism dimmed Croly’s reputation by the end of the century, his book has continued to be part of the canon, often studied in college seminars; and even today his name surfaces in public policy discussions.
This anthology, analyzing The Promise at its 100th birthday, presents essays by historians, political scientists, an economist, and an international relations scholar discussing the impact of Croly’s book on twentieth-century America and opining on the suitability of The Promise’s ideas for the twenty-first century.
