“Somewhere along the way a large part of the Populist-Progressive tradition has turned sour, become illiberal and ill-tempered. …One of the most interesting and least studied aspects of American life has been the frequent recurrence of the demand for reforms, many of them aimed at the remedy of genuine ills, combined with strong moral convictions and with the choice of hatred as a kind of creed.”

–Richard Hofstadter, The Age of Reform, 1955 (pp.20-21)