Progressives And The Progressive Era

Many social movements throughout the nineteenth and twentieth centuries shaped the Progressive Era. Towards the late nineteenth century and early twentieth century the economy was thriving. Industrialization was blooming with new achievements that were being brought to America. However, many problems were also brought. The Progressive Era tackled these problems. The Progressive Era made an immense change on America’s economy and society. This Era was a time of extreme change. Major changes were made in the economic and political levels during the time of this era. Many of the problems were problems of the urbanization and industrialization periods. The Progressive Era had many successes and many failures, however, the successes overshadow the failures. The progressive era was a response to the problems that were caused by the movements after the Civil War, problems of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, the era was successful in addressing problems such as public education, the Gilded Age, and living conditions.

During the latter part of the nineteenth century, presumably around the 1890's, it became known as the Progressive Era, a time of change, reform, and adaptation. As Vernon L. Parrignton put it, it was a "democratic renaissance" (Vernon L. Parrington in The Progressive Movement: Liberal or Conservative). So what was Progressivism? Well, its main goals were to curb corporate power, to end business monopolies, and to wipe out political corruption. They also wanted to democratize electoral procedures, protect working people, and bridge the gap between social classes. They called for reforms such as the referendum, initiative, and the recall. They wanted the Americanization of the immigrant and the

The Progressive Era was a period that changed America greatly due to political reforms and social activism. This era brought forth many changes in America and almost all Americans were involved in this movement somehow. This period began in the late 1800s and lasted until the mid-1900s. The Progressive Era was one of the biggest movements in America. The main point of this movement was to purify the government. Several historians have wrote excerpts on their perspective of the Progressive Era. George Mowry, Joseph Huthmacher, and Glenda Elizabeth Gilmore are three key Progressive historians. In their writings, each of the historians explain who the Progressives were, who was affected during this time, events that took place in the community and government, and other topics.

Progressivism began in the early 1900s. It had roots in several earlier movements such as the Liberal Republican and the Mugwumps. Progressivism centered in cities. Progressives were middle class and well educated. Progressives stayed in the political mainstream. They aimed not to remake American society, but to merely make the existing system work better and to do this they were willing to make compromises. Progressivism offered the middle class, business leader, and farmers a safe reform. By 1900 the American economy was strong. As a result people of all classes felt more confident and more willing to compromise. Progressives made city and state governments more democratic. They also tightened regulations on business. For Progressives, honest and efficient government was an important goal, but not the ultimate one. They saw government as a tool to be used to promote the welfare of all citizens. Regulating business was, for both city and state governments, a major part of that task. Progressives passed more laws aiming at protecting various groups, especially children.

The Progressive Era was a time period between the years 1900-1920 and it marked a time in American history in which society was bursting with enthusiasm to improve life in the industrial age by making political and social changes through government action that ultimately led to a higher quality of life for American citizens. Progressives were known for their beliefs in limiting the power of big business, strengthening the power of the states, and were advocators against corruption and social injustice. These progressive reformers as well as the Federal Government successfully managed to improve the quality of life and establish a precedent for a move active government, although neither was completely successful in solving significant

The era of progressive reform was short, 1900 to about 1917, but much was accomplished and done in this short time span. Evils like child labor and social ills were thought curable by progressive optimists like John Spargo and Upton Sinclair but the main focus was urban America. The progressive reform movement was a period of awareness where people sought to change the injustices of society for example, Anti-Trust laws, recognition of environmental destruction and conservation of national park land, and improving the American way of life through significant areas of reform like women’s suffrage.

During the Progressive Era, many citizens attempted to stop the racism within former confederate states by exposing the horrors of the wrongdoings, through speeches, protests, literature and other means of expression, who were known as progressives. One progressive, Ida B. Wells. helped to expose lynchings and racial discrimination through the use of bold and clear literature. Another, Booker T. Washington, believed that blacks should become more economically independent, so that discrimination will eventually cease. W.E.B. Dubois, another progressive, wanted and expressed instant racial equality through the use of forming groups and classic literature.

The Progressive Era was a period of social activism and political reform that grew from the 1890s to the 1920s. Social reformers and journalists, like Jane Addams, Jacob Riis, and Ida Tarbell were some of the powerful voices for progressivism. “They concentrated on exposing the evils of corporate greed, combating fear of immigrants, and urging Americans to think hard about what democracy meant.” Many progressive reformers wanted to end corruption in the government, regulate business practices, address health hazards, and improve working conditions. It was also an era of conservationists. Conservationists are people who protect and preserve the environment and wildlife. Throughout the Progressive Era, there were many conservationists who wrote and described nature, but the most well-known figure in conservation was John Muir. John Muir worked to protect Earth’s beauty by traveling and exploring nature, co-founding the Sierra Club, and by influencing others through his writings and by showing some of the most important people how the wildlife was magnificent.

The progressive movement developed in the early 1900’s in response to the problems caused by the age of industry. Between the 1890 and 1920, the progressive era was an attempt to solve the economic and social problems. These problems lead the nation to a downfall. The main goal of the progressive era was to expand the democracy, change unfair business practices protect consumers and eliminate social ills. Although there were problems many laws and acts were developed the solve them.

The Progressive Era was a time in which there was a lot of social activism and political reform as a result of the lack of equality in the nation between the social classes, sexes, and job amongst other things. During this time, there were a lot of political figures that rose up and spoke about the inequalities that the society had. Ultimately, this caused political disputes and the people of the nation wanted to see a change. This change came from two presidents that sought to help the nation progress; Theodore Roosevelt and Woodrow Wilson. Both presidents fought for the same general vision; however, they achieved different things. Progressivism became the ultimate goal for the two presidents, where they sought to "clear up corruption in all

Background-The Progressive Movement was an effort to cure many of the ills of American society that had developed during the great spurt of industrial growth in the last quarter of the 19th century. Progressives were mostly middle-class citizens who saw corruption and wanted change in society.

During the Progressive Era, which was known as a large reform movement, there was a widespread across the United States of political reform and social activism. The main focus and goal of the Progressives and their movement was lowering government involvement and eliminating corruption in the government. Progressives reacted to problems caused by large factories and cities. Furthermore, they attacked big corporations, such as the Armour meat-packing company and others, for how harsh their practices were. The progressives exposed these companies and how they treated workers, removed competitors, and set high prices. The meatpacking industry capitalized when the growth of livestock farming in the Midwest started to grow rapidly. Meatpacking companies and industries, such as the Armour meat-packing company, handle the slaughtering, processing, and distribution of animals including cattle and pigs. Although the meatpacking industry created a lot of jobs, working in a meatpacking company was not luxurious because the factories were unsanitary, unregulated, and tremendously dangerous.

The Progressives were a group of reformers such as writers, politicians, and Social welfare advocate, etc. living mainly in cities during the early 20th century and working to change legislative issues, financial aspects, and good society. They accepted that change could originate from inside of man, and along these lines, dismisses the believe of Social Darwinism and regular determination. They were in charge of the section of many laws, including restriction, the Sherman Anti-Trust Act, and the Interstate Commerce Act. During this era, “People work to make themselves and the society a safer and a better place to live. The Progressive worked to make big business regulate more responsible and clean up corrupted businesses, city, improving a better working conditions etc.”(Discussion 9). New comers to the movement strived to adjust to new conditions at one hand while attempting to keep up their particular society and dialect framework with the other making a perplexing circumstance.

As America entered the 20th century, the country entered a time period known as the Progressive Era. This era was one defined by political reform and social activism as well as myriad of problems arising from America’s rapid industrialization. During the Progressive era, America faced several international, political, and social challenges that would set us on the road to the society in which we now live.

The Progressive Era was a term used to describe a time period that had numerous reforms to correct the problems of the country. The origins of this time period was created from the lower class aiming to, “eliminate corruption in government, regulate business practices, address health hazards, and improve working conditions.” Not only did the lower class support reform, but middle class workers too because they were in competition with immigrants for jobs or they were women struggling for the same rights that men had. Another reform Progressives wanted was the right to a direct say in the primaries of elections so the public had more control within government. With more control in the government, this would allow the power of big corporation to be limited and prevent future problems that the middle and lower classes could endure. These goals the reformers had in the Progressive Era, led to a plethora of movements and actions in