ction here is not as a prophet, rather, it is as an observer-from-within. Indeed, Veblen's near-universal inclusion in the canon of Progressive thinkers points to a curious phenomenon in the movement itself: as an expression of "grassroots" political expression, Progressivism was an almost-exclusively homegrown American political movement. This point will be discussed later.
Hofstadter and Kolko, by contrast, comment on Progressivism's activities, accomplishments and failures from the perspective of historical distance. Not too distant, however: both were born within close proximity to the waning years of the Progressive era, and both most assuredly grew up with at-hand access to the thoughts, feelings and personalities of those who did live through that period. Moreover, there are two other, very important, foundational points to both Kolko's and Hofstadter's respective POVs: both their works commenting on Progressivism were written after the New Deal and in the middle of the Cold War. Franklin Delano Roosevelt's 1930s response to the Great
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