America, 1926: What a Forgotten 100-Year-Old Report Says About Who We Are
A 1926 book called *The Economic Mind in American Civilization* analyzed American economic thought from colonial times to the early 20th century and found that by the mid-1920s, Americans had largely turned away from laissez-faire and toward pragmatic government intervention—a century-old insight that challenges modern narratives about American individualism and free-market fundamentalism.
Background
- The article is by Derek Thompson, a staff writer at *The Atlantic* who covers economics, technology, and American culture.
- It revisits a 1926 book/report titled *Recent Social Trends in the United States* — a massive government-commissioned survey of American life commissioned by President Herbert Hoover (before he was president) and overseen by sociologist William Fielding Ogburn.
- The 1926 report was an early, sweeping attempt to use data to understand how rapid industrialization, urbanization, and immigration were transforming the U.S. — covering topics like family structure, crime, religion, work, and leisure.
- Thompson uses this century-old document as a mirror: he argues it reveals both how much has changed (women's roles, technology, racial attitudes) and what has stayed surprisingly constant (anxiety about social change, debates over technology's effects, regional divides).
- The piece is part of a broader genre of "long-run" cultural analysis that tries to diagnose America's present by excavating forgotten moments from its past.