Robert Wiebe

In his groundbreaking work The Search for Order 1877-1920, Robert Wiebe seeks to prove that the drastic changes seen in America at the turn of the century were not disconnected singular events. Instead there was a singular “deep-flowing current, which gave unity and meaning to the period as a whole” (VII). This current was the shift from small town American and their values to the new bureaucratically-minded middle class and the development of values to help cope with this new focus of society. Through and extremely detailed analysis of countless aspects of life during the period at hand; including the way communities functioned, the rise of progressivism, and the development of new foreign policy, Wiebe goes about attempting to prove his theory. When discussing the change of communities, Wiebe stresses that it is important to realize that Americans were lost at the beginning of the 1870s. Between immigrants, railroads, corporations, a weak national government, and poor conditions for the working class, Wiebe argues that the average American didn’t know where they stood in the world, nation, or community.
While this is a mark of the age of the piece, it does not do much to support his claims. Furthermore, he is often extremely liberal with dates, making it hard to follow the progression of events he is attempting to put forward. However, Wiebe writes with a clear voice and a clear message, there is not one piece of superfluous information and his descriptions are immensely detailed and exhaustive. Each of his points supports his thesis – turn of the century America was shaped by the creation of a middle-class and the progressive values that were created by them. All the changes America underwent can be contributed to the new middle class who in turn came from a “lost” generation, thus his work gives great credibility to his