Teddy Roosevelt: The Progressive Era

During the time of the Progressive Era in 1900s-1920s, the majority of the American believed that the industrialization, immigration, and the urbanization had produced critical social disorders and believes that reforms were needed to be reshaped America. They also believed that it was time to eliminate the problem caused by the corruption in the government and promote the improvement in order to address the social and economic problems. People like Theodore Roosevelt and W.E.B.Du Bois also accepted that change was needed to improve and develop. The major changes were made in social, economic and political reforms. But, was the Progressive Era a success?

Question 1. The progressive period in US history started in the 1890s and remained current through the 1920s. Progressive leaders in the US include President Teddy Roosevelt, President William Howard Taft, and President Woodrow Willson. The main objective of progressives was to rid the government of corruption. These progressive leaders targeted political machines and worked to rid the country of monopolistic enterprises that were exploiting regular citizens.

Progressivism is a movement focused on rectifying politics, modernization, and justice for the American people. In the Progressive Era, the citizens had many important economic issues to address, such as exploitation of women and children, the advancement of scientific research, and the consequences of big businesses taking over the work force. On the legislative side, many issues such as corrupt political leaders, Americans being given the freedom the Constitution allows, as well as citizens voices being heard as far as political issues are concerned. The Progressives were motivated by corruption at the hands of the government, inequality for American citizens, and greed by larger companies. The Progressive Era accomplished many advancements such as growth on an economic and city population level, improvement in the industrial production, as well as development of the consumer marketplace.

The mid to early 1800s marked a dynamic period in America’s history. Powerful movements such as the Market revolution the Second Great Awakening gave way to new moral and socio-economic beliefs. These new found beliefs fueled a series of reform movement and earned this era the name the Age of Reforms. Although movements such as temperance restricted democracy in the US, to a greater extent, reform movements such as public education, women’s rights, and abolition expanded democracy by giving power and basic rights to women, slaves, and the lower class.

Progressive Era Reforms During the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, the United States was experiencing a time of widespread reform. This movement brought great changes to multiple fields and areas in the United States. These reforms were ideas that improved the quality of life for working and normal citizens in the United States. Two such examples of these movements are found in reforms made within the working and living conditions across America.

Since the progressive movement was all about beating down the political corruption of the party bosses and political machines. And since Mrs.Roosevelt was the face for the government, you would image there would be lots of chaos and controversy surrounding that. With her extreme power she was able to spread what was happening. She had brought up Social reformers such as Jane Addams and W. E. B. DuBois who argued that education and intervention could improve the lives of the underprivileged. Making their names more noticeable and crediting them for what they have done.

In his first Inaugural Address, Franklin Delano Roosevelt issued a call to action for the New Deal, stating: “Restoration calls, however, not for changes in ethics alone. This Nation asks for action, and action now,” (Roosevelt). He wanted to fix the problems that had resulted from the Great Depression, and in many ways he succeeded with his New Deal. Roosevelt created programs to provide direct and indirect relief to his people, applied reforms to clean up banking and finance, and facilitate economic recovery to get the U.S. back on track and keep another crisis from occurring. Those who disagree believe that FDR didn’t do enough for America’s poor, or that his deficit spending resulted in even worse consequences for America later on.

Imperialism is a policy of extending a country's power and influence through diplomacy or military force. It is a great way to strengthen the economy and gain power and territory for countries that practice it, though it often failed and resulted in war and the deaths of innocents. Four intellectuals that played a big part in influencing American imperialism were Frederick Jackson Turner, Alfred T. Mahan, Herbert Spencer and John Fisk. All of these influencers had different ideologies and came together to justify American imperialism. They believed America needed to expand power and gain territories.

Victors often have certain crucial strengths that are instrumental to their victory, such as possessing ideologies and promoting policies that appeal to their targets and having a strong military force. For instance, in the rise of Stalin, Stalin effectively used his position as Party Secretary to control party membership. He doubled its membership to one million and his policies appealed to the new members, hence he was able to expand his support base. He was also extremely cunning, deliberately tricking Trotsky into not showing up at Lenin’s funeral, severely damaging his reputation and political prestige, and Stalin made the most of the funeral, setting himself up as Lenin’s disciple. In the rise of Mao, Mao called for and led the Long March, which inspired many of the Communist Party’s members and soldiers to see Mao as a courageous, selfless hero who saved their lives.

As a result of President Franklin Roosevelt’s New Deal, the government has since played an integral part in shaping our society into what it is today. However, in doing so, they have also created numerous rules and regulations that limit our individual rights. “The war ended the Great Depression, but the work of the New Deal added a new dimension to the American Dream: the broad expectation that government had a role to play in advancing individual lives” (5). The New Deal created jobs and opportunities during a time of economic despair, giving hope to Americans struggling to achieve their Dream. I support the development of federal programs that create jobs or provide aid to people with special needs, but there is a limit to how much authority the government has over our lives.

2. Theodore Roosevelt was considered to be the “First Modern President because he had a strong- firm personality, and showed aggressive actions towards others. Roosevelt believed that the President had the right to use all power unless they were denied to him. Also, that he has a responsibility to the people, and so challenged himself to avoid notions of limited government and individualism; the government he controlled should maintain as an agent who should give the people what they want. Roosevelt’s presidency opened up creativity of progressive movement, lending the prestige of the White House to welfare legislation, government regulation, and the conservation movement.

Esmé Hassell-Thean Mr. Blenner AP United States History 12th of March 2016 The controversial politics of Theodore Roosevelt. Theodore Roosevelt is one of America’s most famous Presidents and today his legacy lives on, admired by both liberals and conservatives alike. However, in his day Roosevelt would have been considered left wing and the conservatives of the early 1900s would have frowned upon his policies.

The Progressive Era was a time period between 1890-1920 in U.S. history, where the world was stable and perfect in appearance, but behind the surface, was corrupt. With the Industrial Era also occurring at this very time pollution, poverty, and disease plagued cities. It was the job of muckrakers to expose this corrupt world and unveil it. Ida Tarbell, Lincoln Steffens, and Upton Sinclair were all famous muckrakers of their time. Ida was a journalist who investigated the corruption of businesses, more specifically John.

Theodore Roosevelt was a visionary leader, he was able to create a pressure for changeand motivate those around him to achieve a lofty goal. These are traits that I would like toemulate. One instance where I was not able to do this occurred recently. Working incommunications, technologies and requirements are constantly changing. A few peers andmyself decided we needed to revamp our process for new communications requirements.