[1] Illiberal Reformers begins with the history of the Gilded Age and the Progressive Era, discussing how the economy shifted from laissez-faire economics to what has come to be called progressivism.

Leonard details the three "act" process of the rise of progressive economics, beginning with higher education leading to the birth of economists, social scientist, as well as the new business of muckraking journalism.

The final act in the rise of the progressives is that of the policy that came into place; this includes fixed minimum wage, mandatory public schooling, banning of child labor, maximum hours and many others.

[2] In his review for The New Republic, journalist and critic Malcolm Harris wrote that "conservatives can find a lot to like in Leonard's research, and at times it feels like a serious, credentialed version of Jonah Goldberg's screed Liberal Fascism."

"[3] In a The New York Times review also covering Imbeciles by Adam Cohen, historian David Oshinsky wrote that the book is a "slim but vital account of the perils of intellectual arrogance in dealing with explosive social issues," noting that according to Leonard, "elite progressives gave respectable cover to the worst prejudices of the era—not to rabble-rouse, but because they believed them to be true.