THE CONCEPT OF PROGRESS IN PRESIDENTIAL POLITICAL DISCOURSE IN THE UNITED STATES (1929–1935)
THE CONCEPT OF PROGRESS IN PRESIDENTIAL POLITICAL DISCOURSE IN THE UNITED STATES (1929–1935)

Summary/Abstract: This article examines the redefinition of the concept of “progress” in US presidential political discourse during the Great Depression and the first New Deal (1929–1935). Applying methods from conceptual history (semantic and onomasiological) alongside an evolutionary history framework, we analyze the speeches of Herbert Hoover and Franklin D. Roosevelt. Hoover articulated a classical liberal definition of progress centered on individual freedom, self-sufficiency, and formal equality of opportunity—a position that became disconnected from the structural realities of the crisis, thereby fracturing the existing political consensus. In contrast, Roosevelt constructed an alternative definition that assigned the state a central managerial role, emphasized collective welfare, and prioritized the “forgotten man.” However, both definitions preserved racial hierarchies, excluding African Americans from full discursive inclusion. The article argues that, while the concept of progress transformed in response to structural change and functioned as a contested tool of political legitimation, its apparent universality coexisted with—and did not dismantle—deeply embedded social inequalities.

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