Changes in American Life Influenced by Progressive Movements

Evaluate the strengths and weaknesses of progressivism. Prominent political reform movements focused on four main goals: making politics more effective, limiting the power of big business, ameliorating poverty, and promoting social justice. In the 1880s and 1890s, labor unions and farm radicals took the lead in critiquing the new industrial order and demanding change. Over time, more and more middle-class and elite Americans also took up the call, eventually earning the name progressives.

The Progressive Era was a reform movement in the early 20th century to exploit and go against the many evils that were in the United States. Some of those evils included monopoly, corruption, inefficiency, and social injustice. However, this era also opened up new possibilities for the women within the United States. The Progressive Era marked a turning point in the debate over women and their rights in the United States through the different movements, cases, and calamity that befell on the country that aroused questions on how things were being done within America.

The progressive era is one of the most researched times in American history due to the multiple social and economic movements that took place. When historians argue about progressivism, they are not just debating about events of a century ago, they are struggling to interpret the basic meaning of American democracy. The progressive era is a widely debated topic among many historians. It is known as a time period that consisted of economic, political, social, and moral reforms. In summary the progressive era consisted of businessmen seeking to prevent increased government regulation by supporting weak federal laws, women wanting equal rights such as the right to vote, religious gatherings trying to prohibit alcohol consumption, and high society optimists attempting to help the poorer classes. The reformists were a free union covering all levels of government that upheld political, monetary, and social changes. In the book Interpretations of American History, authors Kathryn Kish Sklar and Daniel T. Rodgers discuss their interpretation of the progressive movement. Ms. Sklar’s article is named “The Historical Foundations of Women’s Power in the Creation of the American Welfare State 1880-1920.” Mr. Rodgers article is called “from Atlantic Crossings: Social Politics in a Progressive Age [1998].” Sklar and Rodgers discuss their different views of the progressive era and what they believe were the causes, consequences, and meanings of events during the 1880s throughout the 1920s.

The labor reforms increased the wages and limited the working hours. These reforms limited a regular work day to 8 hours and the first minimum wage law was in effect in 1912. Secondly, these reforms helped the National Child Labor Committee pass the anti-child labor laws that would end child labor in the mass companies. Not only this, but these reforms also helped with fire safety codes to insure that there will will not be any substantial and tragic incidents. These reforms changed the way people lived in the unsatisfactory time period that they were having to struggle

Progressivism was a wide and varied movement that changed American values and lifestyles having everlasting impact on American history.

The progressive era was a difficult time for a worker, conditions in the workplace were horrible and many of the perks that people in today’s workforce get such as maternity leave, sick leave, paid vacation, etc. did not exist during this time. Many progressives tried to improve working conditions during the 19th and 20th century especially for children and women who were the most vulnerable, weak and impressionable during this time. Progressives helped head a movement for laws that that restricted child labor in 38 states, yet this did not stop the child labor; most states just set a maximum ten-hour workday and set the minimum age for employment at 12 years old. About 60% of the child labor was in agriculture and this type of work was exempt from the child labor laws. These laws also did not address the overwhelming poverty and the lack of childcare that lead to child labor in the first

The key principles of the Progressive Movement concentrated on the need for production in all areas of society. The refining of the government to get rid of corruption was

The Progressive Era was a time of social and political reforms in the early 1900s all across America. The goal of the Progressive movement was to repair the issues caused by industrialization, urbanization, immigration, and corruption in government. Numerous reformers worked to improve the workplace, living conditions, and issues with the government.

The progressives were mostly successful because they were able to rally other people to join them. Their ideas were adopted by both political parties. Not all progressives supported every reform, but the major reformation ideas included taking the power away from monopolies like major corporations and banks, representative government in local, state, and national government, the right to proper wages and safe working conditions, rights for women to vote and societal rights, regulation of child labor, income tax that would be higher for the wealthy and less on the poor, nationalization of railroads and banks, and consumer protection laws to prevent the sale of unsafe food and

The progressive movement was one of the greatest times in America’s history, not only was the progressive movement noble but also needed especially after the lasting effects of the Civil War. Although there were many problems still plaguing the United States the progressive movement provided some Americans with a sense of hope because of changes in politics. First of all, progressive Presidents like Teddy Roosevelt and Woodrow Wilson would not necessarily fight for their own political parties, but would fight for the people, reduce the power of big businesses that exploited their employees and helped small businesses by introducing antitrust legislation. Women’s rights also became a huge issue during the progressive movement which would be solved by granting women more rights and even giving Americans the right to directly select senators. Basically the progressive movement was beneficial to America because it gave more Americans more opportunities, like being able to vote, being able to make decent wages and small business to be able to compete.

The Progressive movement changed the election system by giving more power to the people, so they can make more decisions. Many progressives wanted to weaken the power of political parties in the state and federal politics. The different parties had an absolute control over the nominations, and the progressives were trying to change that. They though, that educated experts and skilled man will be able to win the nominations. Also, they came with some reforms which allowed them to take into consideration the public opinion. They first one, Ballot initiative, this reform will give the citizens the right to force a public vote on a particular issue. The government will need to gather a certain number of voters’ signatures to proceed on the issue.

Movements, such as Progressivism, altered the course of American lives significantly. Early in the 1900s, the Progressive movement became characterized by a fusion of beliefs working toward the improvement of society. According to David J. Goldberg in Discontented America, these reformers urged the recognition of the common American individual, and focused on issues “…including the exploitation of female and child wage earners, unsanitary working conditions, the growth of urban slums, corrupt politics, and the abuse of giant corporations…”. He also denoted that progressives perceived government as their greatest tool in fixing this broken and evil society. They advocated the increase in state power because they objected that it was necessary

Progressive policies in Wisconsin had become widespread, leading to election reforms. A progressive is when someone favors reforms and civil liberties, as they also are interested in the change and progress.Even though not all progressive do not agree with the capability of the progressives. As many of them believed that the society needed not to get rid of some of the democracy

In many ways progressivism was the "people's movement" because it encompassed basically everyone. This movement was created from the rapid change of an agricultural society to an industrial economy. It was the first time that many of theses people have seen monopolies of such size. Many problems came along with the rapid urbanization of cities. The progressive movement in many ways called for all members of society to address the many problems in our country. The progressive movement aimed to address social equality and economic justice. Injustice was a major problem at the time for many people including women, African Americans, and homosexuals.The movement also aimed to address the economic injustices by increasing wages and regulating

The progressive movement began in 1890 and went to around 1920. The purpose of this was to fix some serious issues that were happening in the country. This includes corruption, sexism towards women, racism, discrimination against religion, big businesses and corporations, etc. The people realized that things needed to change fast. For things to move into the right direction, people needed to start making the right moves. Having the president on this side was crucial as well. The leaders needed to know exactly who and what to go for to better the country and prevent it from getting worse for the poor and common people. While not everything was able to get fixed under the progressive movement, it served its purpose and did change a great deal of horrible things going on in the US at the time.