Book excerpt: At the turn of the 20th century, when industrialization, urbanization, and immigration were radically changing the face of America, an activist government was taking root across the nation. Innovative public servants fought to meet the needs of ordinary people who didn't have access to the benefits afforded by wealth and power. From a lonely champion of Native American children in Oklahoma to a postal clerk-turned-police chief in Berkeley, Civic Pioneers: Local Stories from a Changing America, 1895-1915 tells the dramatic tales of how these individuals, both heroic and flawed, shaped the country for generations to come.