SPEARHEADS FOR REFORM

American historians will be pleased to discover such a well-written and documented study of an important aspect of U.S. social history: the relationship between the settlement movement and progressivism. While each complemented the other, neither has been examined in relation to the other until the publication of this volume. Mr. Davis traces the initial, often naive, attempts of the early settlement workers to bring ""Beauty"" into the lives of immigrants during the 1890's to their more realistic involvement in labor, educational and political activities. One cannot help but be impressed by the thoroughness with which the author has traced the impact of the settlement movement on the social aspects of progressivism. The important lesson that this volume demonstrates, and that liberal historians often overlook, is that reforms are not accomplished by goodwill, but the organization of groups. Unfortunately, the author fails to consider the sources of the strength of the social settlement or the psychology that motivated the reformers. Although the work does not transcend the matter-of-factness of its approach, it will provide an important study from which scholars may draw their own conclusions.