During the Progressive Era (1880-1920), leading thinkers and politicians transformed American politics. Historians and political scientists have given a great deal of attention to the progressives who effected this transformation. Yet relatively little is known about the conservatives who opposed these progressive innovations, despite the fact that they played a major role in the debates and outcomes of this period of American history. These early conservatives represent a now-forgotten source of inspiration for modern American conservatism. This volume gives these constitutional conservatives their first full explanation and demonstrates their ongoing relevance to contemporary American conservatism.

Introduction; Johnathan O'Neill and Joseph Postell 1. Constitutional Conservatism During the Progressive Era: The National Association for Constitutional Government and Constitutional Review; Johnathan O'Neill 2. The Progressive Origins of Conservative Hostility to Lochner v. New York; David E. Bernstein 3. William Howard Taft and the Struggle for the Soul of the Constitution; Sidney M. Milkis 4. The Election of 1912 and the Origins of Constitutional Conservatism; William Schambra 5. William Howard Taft on America and the Philippines: Equality, Natural Rights, and Imperialism; John Grant 6. Civilization versus Modernity: The League of Nations in the Crisis of World Civilization; W. Taylor Reveley 7. 'Roaring' against Progressivism: Calvin Coolidge's Principled Conservatism; Joseph Postell 8. Rational Compromise: Charles Evans Hughes as a Progressive Originalist; James R. Stoner, Jr. 9. The Two Phases of Herbert Hoover's Constitutional Conservatism; Gordon Lloyd and David Davenport Epilogue; Charles Kesler