Progressivism : A Wide And Varied Movement Essay

In 1890 to 1920 imperialism and progressivism rose in the United States, affecting the country and its people. Progressivism and the political, social, and environmental reforms benefited unions, women, and the environment. However, due to the growing concerns with urban social problems a major weakness was the overshadowing of other problems like nonunionized workers, farmers, and the growing racism specifically directed to African Americans.

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.

The progressive era occurred throughout the early 1900s. It main purpose was to improve everyday life in our nation during the industrial age by moderating the political, social, and economic aspects that were involved. Many progressive goals were created to reform and limit the power of big businesses and corporations, giving our people more of a say in government, and strengthen social justice in the nation. The progressive era reformers and the federal government were highly effective in bringing about reforms at the national level, but it had its flaws as well.

In the beginning of the twentieth century, the economy was booming, new technology flourished. The rapid industrialization brought achievement to the United States, however, it also caused several social problems. Wealth and power were concentrated in the hands of a few, and poverty and political corruption were widespread. As people became aware of these problems, a new reform group was created. Unlike populism, which had been a group of farmers grown desperate as the economy submerged into depression, the new reform movement arose from the educated middle class. These people were known as the progressives. The Progressive Movement was a movement that aimed at solving political, economic, and social problems. The Progressives were people

Progressivism, in the early 1900s political sense, is the idea to build a better society through the involvement of the government in business and everyday life. This notion gained popularity under the presidency of Theodore Roosevelt. Despite its stifling by William Taft, Roosevelt’s ideas were continued by Woodrow Wilson; however, Roosevelt and Wilson differed in their approach on handling big businesses.

Much of a historian’s job is to read what their colleagues have written on their subject of interest at the moment. Often, they then go on to write their own opinions on the subject, thereby influencing the historians of the future. The famed historian and teacher Richard Hofstadter wrote The Age of Reform in 1955 about the late 19th century and early 20th century movement of Progressivism. In turn, other historians that include Paula Baker, Richard McCormick, and Peter Filene have written their opinion on what the movement we call Progressivism really was, and what its real significance is, or even if it really existed as a movement in its own right.

Discuss the tensions within progressivism between the ideals of social justice and the urge for social control. What concrete achievements are associated with each wing of the movement? What were the driving forces behind them?

However, leaders such John Dewey, Mother Jones, Florence Kelly, etc. brought on a new social idea, progressivism. Progressivism is is a philosophy based on the idea of progress, which asserts that advancement in science, technology, economic development, and social organization are vital to improve the human condition.

The Progressive Era was a period of widespread social activism and political reform across the United States, from the 1890s to the 1920s. Interpretations of the goals and participants can vary and are described in the works “Progressivism: Middle Class Disillusionment,” from The Era of Theodore Roosevelt by George Mowry, excerpts from The Triumph of Conservatism from Gabriel Kolko, and “From The Dimensions of Progressivism,” in Who Were the Progressives? By James j. Connolly. Mowry writes about the inner workers of the progressive era, what they were like and what their goals looked like. One thing that Mowry points out is the age of the progressives, and how they were oddly young for what they were achieving.

America’s climb to the top all began during this big Progressive movement. Many great men and women fought during this time to get what they wanted, and to make their home great. Ultimately it’s a hard decision for me to pick what my job would have been back then. There are so many meaningful ones, but I think I would have been a farmer at the time. Seems like it would have been the safest, and most meaningful job that I would have wanted to rely on to take care of my family with. That may come as a surprise, but the farmers did make a decent living, and worked very hard each day to maintain their huge farms.

The Progressive Movement sought to impose significant restrictions on capitalism in the interests of democracy. These Progressive ideals were later continued during the New Deal. Progressivism was primarily a midde class movement and thus sought to reform capitalism and end some of its worst excesses in order to preserve traditional representative democracy. During the late nineteenth century, monopolies were identified as an example of capitalist excess that not only threated economic stability but also the principles of democracy itself as these monopolies were able to influence politics to their benefit. Thus, Progressives helped to push through trust busting statutes such as the Sherman Act, Clayton Act, and the Federal Trade Commission Act which restricted the formation of cartels and prohibited collusive acts that restrained free trade.

Populism was a narrow movement, confined mostly to the western and southern farmers, and was a movement of small- town ignorance lashing out against progress and espoused many ideas which simply could be categorized as fear of the other, a sort of “conspiratorial theory and… suspicion of the stranger that haunted, and still tragically haunts, the nativist American mind”(82). Hofstadter quotes editorials and poems from farmers’ magazines which display their state of mind, and their suspicion of cities and city- life. Progressivism, however, took some of the issues of the Populists and made a genteel, nation- wide movement of reform. The Progressives, according to Hofstadter, were the long- established wealthy professionals who were losing in status and prestige in comparison with the nouveau riche robber barons and railroaders and losing political clout to the ‘bosses’ who controlled the immigrant populations of the cities. Hofstadter refers to the Progressives as ‘gentry’ and they took a stance of liberal, well- intentioned, noblesse oblige, which had the final goal as putting the country back on the right track. Of course, the right path for the country was the one that placed them in prominence once again, and limited the power of the big businesses and eradicated the political bosses of the cities. As with the Populist movement, Hofstadter reviews literature, editorials, and

The time after the Civil War known as the Progressive Era was a time of change and adaptation for the United Sates, politically, socially and economically. The economy was driven out of the farms and into the cities, where factories and manufactures became the driving force of the American economy almost doubling it from 1877 through 1893, new technologies where de-veloped and the way of life drastically changed. During this time not much had changed for the minorities in America, more specifically for the African Americans, even if they were allowed to vote officials at poling stations would make it nearly impossible for them to vote. Eventually more African Americans took part in politics, but the "separate but equal" doctrine that

The ideologies of Progressivism had swept the nation. The movement helped construct a cohesive economic and social reform that would reach astonishing results from every aspect of society, politician, education, workers, native american and women.

social order. The Progressive movement, 1901 to 1917, was ultimately the triumph of conservatism rather than a