Despite America's difficulties overseas, there was much that was positive about the nation's experience and about its growing cadres of professional experts. The professional class was generating an impressive range of new ideas, helping American society continue growing and changing in decisive ways. The managerial and political brokers who were responsible for converting the ideas of experts into policies and organizations were successful in many of the institutions they served. In the cities, where much of the new growth was taking place, people were healthier than they had been in the previous century. They were likely to enjoy longer as well as healthier lives. This was true, in fact, for the entire population as a result of the advances in public health and medicine. Some of the worst aspects of the industrial economy were being brought under the control of the administrative state. Guided by the legal professionals who were defining and frequently running the agencies, government at the federal and state levels was gradually, sometimes hesitantly, developing new capabilities.

At the heart of these positive developments was a massive educational system that worked to sift out winners and send them through the nation's growing number of professional schools. Easy access to public education provided an escape valve for the children of the millions of immigrants pouring into the United States. A few of the immigrants had enough talent and luck to get a foothold in one of the professions, as did the marvelously successful Michael Pupin. For most, however, it was the second and third generations that were able to climb the educational ladder into the professional middle class.