Rapid changes in American society in the early twentieth century fostered both a general sense of optimism for America's future and a perceived sense of moral dislocation affecting present and future generations of America's youth. Urbanization, modernization, and the increasing presence of immigrant populations were often viewed as challenges to traditional, largely Protestant, moral sensibilities. This article analyzes liberal and conservative progressive approaches to the reform of moral education in the United States during the period prior to and after World War I, within the broader context of the early twentieth century modernist impulse in American educational and intellectual life, toward scientific progress and social efficiency. Both liberal and conservative progressives were influenced by this impulse as they sought to re-envision a moral education that was consistent with modern American life and thought.