Wartime fear converted progressive Americanizers into defenders of the economic status quo.

Evidence

So far had Miss Kellor and her wealthy associates swung from their early emphasis on reform that now they stressed the protection of the economic status quo. As a New Nationalist, Miss Kellor had always stood for rationalizing the business system instead of attacking it. Since her interest in efficiency and discipline never flagged, she slipped easily from the concepts of the welfare state to those of welfare capitalism once wartime apprehensions muted progressive aspirations. — John Higham, Strangers in the Land, 1501

Categorization

• XREF: Reversal of reform under threat parallels the reader’s interest in how professed egalitarian/progressive conviction shifts toward defending existing hierarchy when an enemy is constructed. — connects to: War converted Americanization from cosmopolitan sympathy into coercive nationalist conformity. — John Higham, Strangers in the Land: Patterns of…, 1483; Polarization against conspiracy theories froze progressives into defending the status quo — Naomi Klein, Doppelganger: A Trip into the Mirror…, 392
• DEEPTHINKING: flagged by the selector, no supporting note recorded

Broader Connections

• Polarization against conspiracy theories froze progressives into defending the status quo #corroborates (0.82) — Naomi Klein, Doppelganger, 392