Incorporating the latest scholarship about the social, cultural, political, and economic changes that produced modern America, Chambers (history, Rutgers U.) illuminates the experiences of blacks, Asians, Latinos, and other working men and women in the cities and countryside as they struggled to improve their lives in a transformed economy. He includes many of the prominent individuals who shaped attitudes and institutions and provides a mixture of idealistic vision and pragmatic reforms that characterized the period between 1890-1920. He also elaborates the role of civic volunteerism and the state in achieving directed social change, and emphasizes the importance of radical and conservative forces in shaping the so-called progressive era. Contains an updated bibliography and a new preface, both of which incorporate the new social and cultural research of the past decade. Reprint of the 1992 edition published by St. Martin's Press. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)