"The most belated of nations", Theodore Roosevelt called his country during the workmen's compensation fight in 1907. Earlier reformers, progressives of his day, and later New Dealers lamented the nation's resistance to models abroad for correctives to the backwardness of American social politics. This text is an account of the vibrant international network that they constructed - so often obscured by notions of American exceptionalism - and of its profound impact on the USA from the 1870s through to 1945. On a narrative canvas that sweeps across Europe and the United States, Daniel Rodgers retells the story of the classic era efforts to repair the damages of unbridled capitalism. He reveals the forgotten international roots of such innovations as city planning, rural co-operatives, modernist architecture for public housing, and social insurance, among other reforms. From small beginnings to reconstructions of the new great cities and rural life, and to the wide-ranging mechanics of social security for working people, Rodgers finds the interconnections, adaptations, exchanges, and even rivalries in the Atlantic region's social planning. He uncovers the immense diffusion of talent, ideas, and action that were breathtaking in their range and impact.

丹尼爾•T. 羅傑斯

普林斯頓大學曆史係教授，講授美國文化和思想史、比較和跨國界視野中的美國曆史等。《大西洋的跨越：進步時代的社會政治》（1998）曾獲美國曆史協會的比爾（Beer）奬、美國曆史學傢組織的霍利（Hawley）奬。他的著作還包括《1850—1920年美國工業時代的職業道德》（1978）、《受到挑戰的真理：獨立以來的美國政治關鍵詞》（1987）、《破裂的時代》（2011）。