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Similarities Between Populist And Progressive Movements

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Populist and Progressive Reform in American History Throughout American history, reform was common among people of a particular, race, gender, or class used to accomplish change. The emergence of the populist and progressive movements were a response to the changing climate in American society due to rapid industrialization, an ethnically diverse personality of a young nation, and birth of American imperialism. Disgruntled American farmers that wished to advance their economic position initiated the Populist movement. Progressives pushed to improve urban labor conditions, dismantle trusts and monopolies, conserve of environment, and to install an active government. Populism and Progressivism had many similarities and differences, which …show more content…

Discontented farmers, despite their passion, lacked the numbers to make a national impact. They accomplished many of their goals, though most were not recognized as populist achievements. Ultimately, class played a primary role in the apparent failure of the populists in comparison to the success of the progressives. Despite the brevity of its existence, the Populist movement exercised a profound influence on subsequent U.S. political life. Almost all the Populist demands, which at one time were widely viewed as radical and contradictory to America’s free enterprise system, were eventually enacted into law. The Progressive Movement was an outgrowth of previous reform eras, including the ideas first presented by the Populists. While many Progressives were originally anti-Populists, they eventually came to believe that the large corporations and other monopolies that they were trying to reform were similar to the farmer’s revolts against the railroads and commercial practices and regulations of the government. As a continuation of populist ideology, the progressive movement accomplished a great feat with the passing of the Interstate Commerce Act and the Sherman Antitrust Act. The Interstate Commerce Act of 1887 created the Interstate Commerce Commission, the first true federal regulatory agency, to control the issues of railroad abuse and discrimination. Railroad companies were required to have and publish reasonable

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