Why Nothing Works: Who Killed Progress—and How to Bring It Back

by Marc J. Dunkelman

Here is progressivism’s self-contained dilemma distilled to its essence. Reformers want both to build great infrastructure and to protect communities from coercive power. We want fast trains without having to cut straight rights-of-way. We want the benefits of Robert Moses without the drawbacks. We are willing to throw money at improvements, but we fear unleashing the Establishment. And rather than seek to balance these two impulses, progressivism has, through the decades, toggled between the two, letting Robert Moses–like figures run amok during one period, and then overcorrecting in the decades that follow.