The book is said to "offer a manifesto of Progressive beliefs" that "anticipated the transition from competitive to corporate capitalism and from limited government to the welfare state." By Croly’s death in 1930, only 7,500 copies of The Promise of American Life had been sold. Despite this, the book was immensely influential, even influencing Theodore Roosevelt to adopt the platform of The New Nationalism.
Chapters
1 What Is the Promise of American Life? 16 min 2 How the Promise has been realized 22 min 3 How the Promise is to be realized 25 min 4 The Federalists and the Republicans 27 min 5 Federalism and Republicanism as opponents 19 min 6 Federalism and Republicanism as allies 13 min 7 The Democrats and the Whigs 8 min 8 The New National Democracy 26 min 9 The Whig failure 15 min 10 Slavery and American Nationality 20 min 11 Slavery as a Democratic Institution 21 min 12 Lincoln as more than an American 25 min 13 The Contemporary Situation and Its Problems 14 min 14 The Development of the Business Specialist 28 min 15 The Development of the Political Specialist 21 min 16 The Labor Union and the Democratic Tradition 13 min 17 Government by Lawyers 16 min 18 American Democracy and the Social Problem 6 min 19 Reform and the Reformers 17 min 20 The Logic of Reform 17 min 21 William J. Bryan as a Reformer 14 min 22 William Travers Jerome as a Reformer 9 min 23 William R. Hearst as a Reformer 9 min 24 Theodore Roosevelt as a Reformer 13 min 25 The Reformation of Theodore Roosevelt 10 min 26 Reconstruction: Its Conditions and Purposes 24 min 27 Democracy and Discrimination 19 min 28 Constructive Discrimination 35 min 29 The Bridge between Democracy and Nationality 19 min 30 Nationality and Democracy: National Origins 18 min 31 The Implications of National Development 20 min 32 Nationality and Democracy in England 22 min 33 Democracy and Nationality in France 16 min 34 The Relation of German Nationality to Democracy 20 min 35 Militarism and Nationality 27 min 36 The American Democracy and Its National Principles 18 min 37 Nationality and Centralization 18 min 38 The People and the Nation 22 min 39 A National Foreign Policy 28 min 40 A stable American international system 19 min 41 Democracy and Peace 16 min 42 Problems of Reconstruction: Part 1 - State Institutional Reform 46 min 43 State Administrative Reform 25 min 44 Possibilities of effective state action 17 min 45 Problems of Reconstruction: Part 2 15 min 46 The recognition of Industrial Organization 29 min 47 The fruits of Industrial Organization 31 min 48 Taxation and inequalities in wealth 11 min 49 The organization of Labor 32 min 50 Conclusions: The Individual and the National Purposes - Individual vs. Collective Education 25 min 51 Conditions of individual emancipation 32 min 52 Attempts at individual emancipation 15 min 53 Means of individual emancipation 36 min 54 Constructive individualism 34 min
