The Progressive Era is generally regarded as a period of extraordinary social, political, and economic change, affecting virtually every aspect of American life. In the last decades of the nineteenth century, American social scientists, drawing on their experiences with the German social welfare system, became increasingly interested not merely in identifying problems, but in prescribing means by which to effect social change. This book is an effort to identify the various influences upon critical thinkers, and to examine their approaches to solving the social problems of the time.