Includes bibliographical references and index.

Introduction: The progressive pursuit of a modern democratic state -- Citizenship: the origins of modern American constitutionalism -- Police power: the state and the transformation of American public law -- Public utility: the origins of modern business regulation -- Social legislation: from social welfare to social police -- Antimonopoly: regulated industries and the social control of capitalism -- Democratic administration: public service and social provision -- Conclusion: The myth of the New Deal state.

"Between 1866 and 1932 - between the Civil War and the New Deal - the American system of governance was fundamentally transformed with momentous implications for modern American social and economic life. Nineteenth-century traditions of local self-government and associative citizenship were replaced by a modern approach to positive statecraft, social legislation, economic regulation, and public administration very much with us today. This later turn-of-the-century revolution in governance is best characterized as "The Creation of the Modern American State." This was the second great act in the political history of American democracy, broadly construed"-- Provided by publisher.