The wave of reform that carried Teddy Roosevelt to the door of the White House in 1900 had its origin in the steam engine, the evolutionary device that took us from the ox to the locomotive in a single leap. It wreaked havoc with the social order just as the microchip does today.  When the North embraced the steam engine and the South chose to stick with the 18th century, the rift between the two cultures widened into the bloodiest conflict in history. The industrialization that followed the Civil War brought rising power to the cities, along with slums, saloons, political corruption, and a spectacular concentration of wealth in the pockets of a handful of people.

Ranged against these evils was a broad coalition that stretched from Kansas to Brooklyn—ordinary Americans fed up with machine politics and robber barons who trampled the little people underfoot. The progressive wing of the Republican party had undeniable claim to the leadership of this movement, for this was the party of Lincoln.  These people had freed the slaves.  And though it took a war to prove the point, the progressives had