The Progressive Era And The New Deal

The Progressive Era and the New Deal Era had a significant amount of similarities with policies and programs to reform the American society, improve lives and fight poverty in America. Although the Progressive and New Deal Era had many similarities, there were still differences between them that included the views of what needed to be done.

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

In the first two decades of the twentieth century the national political scene reflected a growing American belief in the ideas of the Progressive movement. This movement was concerned with fundamental social and economic reforms and gained in popularity under two presidents. Yet Theodore Roosevelt and Woodrow Wilson espoused two different approaches to progressive reform. And each one was able to prevail upon congress to pass legislation in keeping with his own version of the progressive dream. These two people, although they had different principles in mind, had one goal: to make changes to the nation for the better of the people and the country. Setting out to reach this goal, Roosevelt came to be a president of the common man while

Although the New Deal was established about thirty years before the Great Society was, they both embodied similar characteristics. The origins of these two parts of history clearly resemble each other. Also, the goals of the Great Society largely compare to those of the New Deal. Finally, the New Deal and the Great Society prove to be alike through their lasting legacies. The Great Society resembles the New Deal in its origins, goals, and social and political legacies.

Theodore Roosevelt's 'Square Deal' and Woodrow Wilson's 'New Freedom,' were both programs of reform. Roosevelt covered more areas of reform than Wilson (who focused mainly on economy), and was more of a progressive than Wilson was. As a governor and the first president of the era, Roosevelt set a terrific example of what a president of this time should do. 'Progressing' from bad, and implementing various reforms to do so defined the era. These two programs are comparable in the areas of antitrust, tariff, and labor reform. Though Wilson seemed to have many more acts in each category, mostly economic), he only acknowledged these few areas, unlike Roosevelt who acknowledged a whole array of areas such as labor, economy, politics, consumer

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

The late 19th century to early 20th century is characterized as the Progressive Era. This is when reformers strived for better welfare policies and more rights for the people. Although three presidents reigned during this movement, only two are known for their policies. Theodore Roosevelt, the arrogant and egomaniacal president spoke out of ambition, whereas Woodrow Wilson, the more morally inclined leader spoke out of actual desire. Both had similar ideas, but their means of displaying them, and actually carrying through were different. Roosevelt was militaristic and felt war solved everything. Wilson was a pacifist and felt America should try to help their own people first before going to war. Roosevelt fought for the protection of the

During both the Progressive era and the New Deal era, policies as well as programs were being created in an effort to assist the American public, specifically those living in poverty. Throughout the early 1900’s Roosevelt had strayed away from the typical laissez-faire policy and decided that the people would need to be guided by the government. “Wilsonian Progressivism” had also aimed at assisting the public with his “New Freedom Program” which consisted of antitrust legislation, banking reform as well as tariff reductions. After the stock market crashed in 1929, America had fallen into a Great Depression resulting in the unemployment of millions. Newly elected Franklin D. Roosevelt decided to present his

In his inaugural address, President Franklin D. Roosevelt set the tone for the upcoming half century when he confidently said, “The only thing we have to fear is fear itself”. In response to the economic collapse of the Great Depression, a bold and highly experimental fleet of government bureaus and agencies known as Roosevelt’s Alphabet Soup were created to service the programs of the New Deal and to provide recovery to the American people. The New Deal was one of the most ambitious programs in American history, with implications and government programs that can still be seen to this day. Through its enactment of social reform and conservation programs, the New Deal mounted radical policies that gave the federal government unprecedented power in the nation’s economy and society, however, the New Deal did not bring America out of the Great Depression and could be considered conservative in the context of the era, ultimately saving capitalism from collapsing in America.

Theodore Roosevelt’s presidency marked the beginning of a very liberal period in American history. This new ‘Progressive Era’ was mobilized largely by the middle class as an attempt to put an end to the problems created by the period of excess that was the Gilded Age. Believing that big business was ruining democracy, and assuming a moral obligation to shield the poor and downtrodden from corrupt capitalists, the Progressives commenced an era of sweeping reforms. From the outset, the Progressive movement targeted domestic issues such as political machines, monopolies, and factory regulations. While President Roosevelt—the face of the Progressive movement—frequently became entangled in global affairs during his time in the Whitehouse, the focus of Progressives during this stage remained primarily on domestic concerns. It was not until after Roosevelt’s presidency that the Progressives followed their patron’s lead, becoming active participants in foreign affairs. Theodore Roosevelt’s exit from the spotlight and subsequent return to politics in 1912 caused the Progressives to split from the Republican Party, and when war broke out in Europe in 1914, Progressives were then divided amongst themselves regarding how the Great War should be handled from afar. As foreign policy issues became a larger concern than domestic issues, the Progressives shifted their attention away from home and toward foreign policy.

     The accomplishments taken place upon the onset of the many New Deal legislations owe much to the seeds implanted and unknowingly disseminated by the pre-WWI Progressive movement. Sparked by the new image as a world power, industrialization, and immigration at the dawn of the new century, a new found reform movement gripped the nation. With the new found image of the nation and world as a whole, the reforms advanced the position of the previously ignored people of the nation, as did its reincarnation and rebirth apparent in the New Deal.

FDR’s New Deal programs greatly expanded the size, scope, and power of the federal government, giving the President and his Brain Trust near-dictatorial status. “I want to assure you,” Roosevelt 's aide Harry Hopkins told an audience of New Deal activists in New York, “that we are not afraid of exploring anything within the law, and we have a lawyer who will declare anything you want to do legal.” FDR was faced with the same difficult position of putting words into action. The establishment machine forges a “coalition of progressives that were divided into two parties” (54).

“I pledge you, I pledge myself, to a new deal for the American people,” President Franklin Delano Roosevelt said after winning his party’s nomination in 1932 ("A New Deal for Americans"). The 1930s was a time of great economic depression; in response the New Deal was FDR’s plan for America’s recovery. By 1933, when FDR took office, one in four Americans was unemployed. Furthermore, there was widespread hunger, malnutrition, overcrowding, and poor health. The New Deal was made to combat these tragic conditions and it did so through the means of welfare and government intervention. Indeed, the New Deal was a radical change to the way America had

During the Progressive Era from 1890-1920, America saw three new presidents: Theodore Roosevelt, William Howard Taft, and Woodrow Wilson. This period of time is known as the Progressive Era due to the political and social changes made to move away from a laissez-faire government to a more active government by the administrations of these presidents. Prior to this period, Americans had to suffer through poor working conditions, low wages, social and class inequality and become victims to large corporations that took advantage of the people. In particular, the administrations of Theodore Roosevelt and Woodrow Wilson established the key principles and ideas of economic reform and social reform, which would end up returning the power from the manipulative corporations back to the government, establishing a model for a more active role for the federal government, and improve the lives of Americans. However, even though Roosevelt and Wilson had similar intentions of reforming America, they both had different means of achieving it.

The economic crisis that showed all the contradictions of capitalism led to an increase of a deep political crisis in the USA in late 1920?s. October 29, 1929 is known in the American history as the Black Tuesday. It was the date, when the American stock market collapsed. In such economically difficult situation, in November 1932, a regular presidential election took place. The Democrat Franklin Roosevelt, who spoke with the program the New Deal, came to presidency. It was a series of social liberal programs applied in the United States in 1933-1938 in response to the Great Depression. The New Deal was focused on three main principles: relief, recovery, and reform.[footnoteRef:1] They promised to bring the country to prosperity and economically stable future. However, the Conservatives criticized the New Deal during the whole period of the reforms. It was expressed by Herbert Hoover in Anti-New Deal Campaign Speech in 1936 and Minnie Hardin in 1937 in a Letter to Eleanor Roosevelt. [1: (notes)]