How Did The Progressive Movement Influence American Politics

The 1900s was a time period filled with political corruption, social inequality and injustice, discrimination, poor working and living conditions. The progressive movement resulted in response to these issues. Members and advocates of this movement were usually white (some blacks too), middle-class, Christian, college educated women (and men). They sought to achieve social justice through equality and enhance life in America for everyone. To further the nation’s democratic ideals, they hoped to incorporate reforms based on the expectations of the majority public. The Progressive Movement was a success because even though they lasted only for a short period of time, they achieved many things that today we are benefitting from, like for example

The Progressive Era is one of the reasons America still stands strong today. It lasted from the 1890’s to the 1920’s and seeked to reform American policies and government. There are 3 main people who have contributed to the Progressive area - Theodore Roosevelt, William Taft, and Woodrow Wilson. These three presidents enforced and introduced laws and regulations that allowed more flexibility and choice for the people, and they are still in use today. If it weren’t for them, America would still be overly ruled by corporations and silenced by the government and our people would be sick.

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.

The “Trust-Busting” Progressive President In the late 19th century, the idea of progressivism began to emerge from rapid industrialization and urbanization. Muckrakers and other progressive citizens created a hunger for truth after exposing scandals and corruption within healthcare, politics, and businesses. The people of this era responded to the economic, social, and political problems that arose. Progressive presidents were elected to office to create change in America.

In the period between 1900 and 1920, the federal government and reformers were very successful in bringing social, economic, and political reform to the federal government. While not every aspect of it was successful, the rights of women, fighting against child labor and limiting the control of trusts and monopolies were three distinct successes of that time. Even before the progressive era, women challenged their place and articulated new visions of social, political and economic equality. The progressive era was a turning point for women as organizations evolved fighting for equal rights. Woman began to become very involved in a variety of reform movements.

During the Progressive era there was a lot of public reform. Women were affected and they also created change thought their movements in this era. Women began working in factories and going to school. They began to have less children and wanted to focus on themselves. “Divorce rates increased because some educated women shunned marriage and believe only remaining single could they play roles they envisioned in the public world (Brinkley, Pg. 481).”

During 1890-1920, Theodore Roosevelt coincided within an extraordinary period of social activism and political innovations during which compelling public issued forced profound changes in the government and in presidential leadership. The Progressives concluded that the United States had been changing rapidly since the Civil War, that the nation was becoming to be at risk of imploding, and that the gap between the rich and poor widened during the Gilded Age, in order to fix these changes several reforms began to be made. Social Reforms during the Progressive Era dealt with circumstances within the people of the nation. A major social reform would be the Women’s Suffrage, which concerned with the women’s rights to vote. It began with the Seneca

“The first step towards getting somewhere is to decide that you are not going to stay where you are.”

The popularity of the Progressive movement in the early 1900's was due to several social and cultural changes in the United States. In the wake of chaotic reorganizations of the country after industrialization and urbanization, as well as the influences of earlier ideological movements such as Populism and Pragmatism, the Progressives sought to bring order and progress to society through central planning, social reform, and even social control. The intellectuals were understood to have the best interests of the people in mind, and therefore had the responsibility to intervene in society through the means of the state. These areas of intervention included sanitation, inculcation of certain moral and behavioral habits, environmental conservation,

The progressive era which lasted from 1890-1920 in American society was the institution of radical reforms brought about by the millions of Americans involved in volunteer organizations across the country. During this time Americans worked to create solutions to the problems caused by the rapid industrialization and urbanization of the country. The progressive era was not a single movement, but rather a collection of movements all of which were intended to improve the lives of Americans. This was a truly remarkable time for women and the end of the era would see almost universal women’s suffrage with the passing of the nineteenth amendment in 1920.

The progressive era was filled with political problems, fighting corruption, and harsh working conditions. There were some very important changes in this era. The nineteenth amendment gave women the right to vote. There were different presidents like Theodore Roosevelt, Woodrow Wilson, and William H. Taft. Discrimination started to become a big problem.

Government oversight of big business (monopolies) and child labor were serious issues during the early 1900 's. Progressives were a group of reformers during these years that were fighting to "purify" the government, and eliminate political bosses and the corruption frequently connected with them. There were four main goals of the Progressives, fostering industrial efficiency, creating economic reform, promoting moral improvement, and protecting social welfare. The two Presidents that shared commitment to enacting these major social reforms were Theodore Roosevelt and Woodrow Wilson. Roosevelt, through use of the Square Deal, promoted the conservation movement and placed millions of acres of land under federal protection to preserve America

Thanks to Roosevelt, the New Deal was able to Profoundly change the Nation, and secure his place in history as one of the best American

Between the 1890s and World War One, reform efforts started taking place by the progressives. The progressives were not a single unified group and even had some contradicting goals. They were middle class urban dwellers and some were women. The progressives wanted to end prostitution, Americanize immigrants, antitrust legislation created, women’s suffrage, and the start of prohibition. An example of a group of progressive women who wanted to start prohibition is The Women’s Christian Temperance Union. This group was lead by Francis Willard. The goals of the Women’s Christian Temperance union were to lobby for federal aid for education, free school lunches, unions for workers, an eight-hour workday, work relief for the poor, municipal sanitation and boards of health, national transportation, strong anti-rape laws, protections against child abuse and of course prohibition. The root of Willard 's argument for female suffrage was based on the platform of "Home Protection", which Willard described as "the movement...the object of which is to secure for all women above the age of twenty-one years the ballot as one means for the protection of their homes from the devastation caused by the legalized traffic in strong drink."[1] These "devastations" were the violent acts against women committed by

The progressives, wanted to create a society that acted as one. The idea of being an individual was something to be forgotten in order to create a more perfect civilization of order and pureness. During this time of the progressive movement, the rest of society began to reject it ideology of their message and goals of non­pleasure and work. Especially around the Carina Arreola History 1302 W.Wooten time of World War One, the Great depression, and the New Deal.