In Illiberal Reformers, Princeton professor Thomas Leonard tells the story of the Progressive intellectuals and activists who led the Progressive Era crusade to dismantle laissez-faire, remaking American economic life with a newly created instrument of reform, the administrative state (ix). In sum, Leonard argues that their policies were illiberal (opposing individual rights) and deeply troubling (trampling the civil and political rights of those viewed as deficient by the ruling elites).
D. Eric Schansberg, "Review Essay: Exposing the Paradoxes of Progressivism," Journal of Markets & Morality 19, no. 2 (Fall 2016): 353-366