The progressive reading of history focuses on two major antecedents for the origins of the United States 1898 war with Spain: the 1896 presidential election and the Hearst-Puliter press war that, reportedly, generated an irresistible clamor from an aroused public. Underlying those narratives are two very different theoretical frameworks: a class-dominance view and that of the mass society. Volume 1 of President McKinley, War and Empire assesses the adequacy of those readings.