The 1912 Progressive Party: Was it left wing progressivism or was it right wing progressivism?

People don't like to discuss progressivism. They don't like to discuss the progressive party. It doesn't really make any sense to me, these are some of the most important things we ought to be discussing.

Here is the party platform of the Progressive Party. What do you see?

One of the very first declarations is for the direct election of senators - essentially the 17th amendment. Is this left wing or right wing?

It calls for nationalizing issues out of the hands of the states. Is this left wing or right wing?

There's social justice and industrial justice. Is this left wing or right wing?

The creation of a department of labor.

The creation of a National Health Service.

A progressive income tax.

Distribution of immigrants all across the countryside, not just concentrated in the cities.

Are these things left wing or right wing?

You should read the entire platform. There are items I did not address. And if you do not want to read the party platform? You can listen to a recorded version of the entire Progressive Party platform, here.

New audiobook release: Out of the Dark, by Helen Keller

Today I'm happy to make a mention that Out of the Dark, a book written by Helen Keller, is now ready as downloadable audio.

This book is interesting in that it is where Keller describes "how I became a socialist". Some of you may find that just as curious as I do as to what her reasonings were.

https://librivox.org/out-of-the-dark-by-helen-keller/

New audiobook release: Reflections on Violence, by George Sorel

Today I'm happy to announce the availability of the book Reflections on Violence, by George Sorel. A lot can be said about this book, but one of the keys to it is that the outlook it carries was instrumental to the syndicalism that motivated radicals in Italy in the early 20th century. It is a little outside of my normal focus but someone else started this work and then abandoned it, and I am aware of this book's importance.

It's been somewhat slow over at LibriVox these days, not that I haven't been trying and working on getting new works completed. This particular one was actually finished some time ago but I had forgot about it. For those who know what this is about, this is a very useful work to have discussions over. I'll be continuing to work on completing new audio books as I can get them completed and will let you know when they finish.

New audiobook release: An Appeal to the Inhabitants of the British Empire, by William Wilberforce

Full book title: An Appeal to the Religion, Justice, and Humanity of the Inhabitants of the British Empire, in behalf of the Negro Slaves in the West Indies

This work speaks for itself. There is more I would like to say about it, but I'll do so later.

New audiobook release: War Memories of an Army Chaplain, by Henry Clay Trumbull

Earlier this year in March, the book War Memories of an Army Chaplain by Henry C. Trumbull was completed as audio. I don't always make a fuss out of every single work we finish around here, I sometimes choose to avoid feature creep and some works I pick up simply for collaborative reasons. This work was recommended to me by an acquaintance at church and I am very strongly oriented toward home schoolers so it stirred my thoughts.

That said, it has come to my attention that in the last six months the popularity of this work has ballooned, and the downloads are reaching toward 50,000.

Popularity alone isn't the reason to highlight this because I do know better: My referencing of something is going to get it like an additional 10 views - a drop in the bucket. The question is about quality. Quality in either the recording itself that is attracting people and/or quality in the author's original work as highlighted by this new audio book. I happen to think the recordings all came out really good but either way as a quality item I wanted to share it further and leave it up to everyone else to decide.

As to the content itself, Trumbull tells his experiences ministering to the wounded out on the battlefield.

New audiobook release: The Pivot of Civilization, by Margaret Sanger

In his well known work "The Art of War", Sun Tzu writes:

If you know the enemy and know yourself, you need not fear the result of a hundred battles. If you know yourself but not the enemy, for every victory gained you will also suffer a defeat. If you know neither the enemy nor yourself, you will succumb in every battle - Sun Tzu (Art of War, Chapter 3)

This has been the guiding principle of the progressingamerica project since its opening day nearly fifteen years ago. That has been in my sidebar the whole time and has never changed, not once.

Today, certainly with mixed thoughts about it, I'd like to announce the release of Margaret Sanger's most important work The Pivot of Civilization as an audio book. More than anything and besides a recognition about what Sun Tzu wrote, it should probably be said that I am hardly a wealthy person and also that sunlight is the best disinfectant. Its not like I have the ability to strategically pay for the placement of billboards around the country, nor some slick campaign on YouTube highlighting key aspects of the book.

I do think that sort of thing would be a good idea. Sunlight is the best disinfectant and we do need to know as Tzu said the enemy. So what can I do, well, you know, an audio book. This will inevitably get tens of thousands of downloads. That is what I can do, and that is pretty good.

New audiobook release: The Pioneer Mothers of America, Volume 1

I talk a lot about the Founding Fathers but you should not think that this means I forgot about our Founding Mothers. In the early 1900s, an effort was made to catalog early prominent women in the U.S. and the British Colonies. The result of that effort is a three-volume set, "The Pioneer Mothers of America". Here we have the release of the first volume, which covers the years prior to the 1700s and some of the early 1700s.

The second volume contains the bulk of our Founding Mothers and many of the Wives of the Signers, however this book is still important in opening the series, setting the tone, and having some descriptions of American colonial life.

The cool thing (to me at least) is also that this book has already eclipsed having 20,000 downloads and its only been a month.