Progressive Era

For other uses, see Progressive Era (disambiguation).
See also: History of the United States (1865–1918) and United States in World War I

Progressive Era
1901 – 1919 or 1929
The Awakening: "Votes for Women" in 1915 Puck magazine
LocationUnited States
IncludingFourth Party System
President(s)William McKinley
Theodore Roosevelt
William Howard Taft
Woodrow Wilson
Warren G. Harding
Calvin Coolidge
Herbert Hoover
Key eventsNadir of American race relations
Trust-busting
Women's suffrage
Initiative and referendum
Spanish–American War
Philippine–American War
Square Deal
Chronology
Gilded Age World War I
Roaring Twenties
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1849–1865
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1865–1917
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1917–1945
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    Great Depression 1929–1941
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1945–1964
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1964–1980
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The Progressive Era (1901–1929) was a period in the United States during the early 20th century of widespread social activism and political reform across the country.[1][2] Progressives sought to address the problems caused by rapid industrialization, urbanization, immigration, and political corruption as well as the enormous concentration of industrial ownership in monopolies. Progressive reformers were alarmed by the spread of slums, poverty, and the exploitation of labor. Multiple overlapping progressive movements fought perceived social, political, and economic ills by advancing good democracy, scientific methods, and professionalism; regulating business; protecting the natural environment; and improving working and living conditions of the urban poor.[3]

Corrupt and undemocratic political machines and their bosses were a major target of progressive reformers. To revitalize democracy, progressives established direct primary elections, direct election of senators (rather than by state legislatures), initiatives and referenda,[4] and women's suffrage which was promoted to advance democracy and bring the presumed moral influence of women into politics.[5] For many progressives, prohibition of alcoholic beverages[6] was key to eliminating corruption in politics as well as improving social conditions.

Another target were monopolies, which progressives worked to regulate through trustbusting and antitrust laws with the goal of promoting fair competition. Progressives also advocated new government agencies focused on regulation of industry.[7]

An additional goal of progressives was bringing to bear scientific, medical, and engineering solutions to reform government and education and foster improvements in various fields including medicine, finance, insurance, industry, railroads, and churches. They aimed to professionalize the social sciences, especially history,[8] economics,[9] and political science[10] and improve efficiency with scientific management or Taylorism.[11][12]

Initially, the movement operated chiefly at the local level, but later it expanded to the state and national levels. Progressive leaders were often from the educated middle class, and various progressive reform efforts drew support from lawyers, teachers, physicians, ministers, business people, and the working class.[13]

  1. ^ John D. Buenker, John C. Boosham, and Robert M. Crunden, Progressivism (1986) pp 3–21
  2. ^ Arthur S. Link, "What Happened to the Progressive Movement in the 1920s?." American Historical Review 64.4 (1959): 833–851.
  3. ^ "Progressive Era to New Era". Library of Congress.Public Domain This article incorporates text from this source, which is in the public domain.
  4. ^ "United States History. The Progressive Era Key Facts". Britannica.
  5. ^ On purification, see David W. Southern, The Malignant Heritage: Yankee Progressives and the Negro Question, 1900–1915 (1968); Southern, The Progressive Era And Race: Reaction And Reform 1900–1917 (2005); Norman H. Clark, Deliver Us from Evil: An Interpretation of American Prohibition (1976) p 170; and Aileen Kraditor, The Ideas of the Woman Suffrage Movement: 1890–1920 (1967). 134–136.
  6. ^ James H. Timberlake, Prohibition and the Progressive Movement, 1900–1920 (1970) pp. 1–7.
  7. ^ Michael Kazin; et al. (2011). The Concise Princeton Encyclopedia of American Political Turn up History. Princeton University Press. p. 181. ISBN 978-1400839469.
  8. ^ Cite error: The named reference Richard Hofstadter 1968 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  9. ^ Cite error: The named reference ReferenceB was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  10. ^ Cite error: The named reference Barry Karl 1975 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  11. ^ Lewis L. Gould, America in the Progressive Era, 1890–1914 (2000)
  12. ^ David B. Tyack, The One Best System: A History of American Urban Education (Harvard UP, 1974), p. 39
  13. ^ George Mowry, The California Progressives (1963) p 91.