An exploration of progressivism and the political change which established the modern American state.

1. Introduction; 2. Congress and the nation; 3. The troubled subject of railroad regulation in the progressive era; 4. Congress and the 'labor question'; 5. The ideal of a 'model city': Congress and the District of Columbia; 6. The Senate and progressive reform; 7. Patterns of republican insurgency in the House of Representatives; 8. Progressivism, democratic style; 9. Congress, progressive reform, and the new American state.