Understanding the Progressive Movement: Key Reforms and Impact

Essay on The Progressive Movement The Progressive Movement (ca. 1890s–1910s) Even more energetic a sphere of historical controversy than that over the Populists is the historians' argument over the Progressive movement. The Progressives were a heterogeneous collection of reformers. Active chiefly in the nation's cities and the urban mass media (and in the legislatures of such states as Wisconsin and New York), the Progressives carried out efforts to reform American society and governance on all fronts. They numbered among their ranks social Progressives (such as Jane Addams, the founder of the Hull House settlement movement), economic Progressives (such as Richard Ely, the noted Wisconsin economist who emphasized the need to prevent great concentrations of economic ...show more content... This new thinking took various forms –– including the use of local, state, and national government to protect workers from unsafe working conditions, to guard consumers against unsafe products, and to bring order and system to the growing, ever more complex economic system. As noted above, however, a division emerged between nationalist Progressives led by Theodore Roosevelt , who conceived the nation as a fully integrated economic, social, and political unit requiring national solutions to national problems, and localist Progressives led by Woodrow Wilson and Louis D. Brandeis, who believed that mere bigness was itself a dangerous threat to American liberty, and that solutions to the problems of American life were best given effect by state and local government. Progressives built on some of the ideas of the Populists, advocating greater democracy and accountability at all levels of government. Progressive initiatives and inventions in government included such devices as the referendum (by which the electorate would decide directly on major public questions), the initiative (by which the electorate could instruct their elected representatives to consider legislative measures), and the recall (by which the electorate could topple officials, for malfeasance or faith ithlessness to the interests of those they represented, before their terms of office were up). The Progressives also united to amend Get more content on StudyHub.Vip

Progressivism Movement Progressivism implies a philosophy that welcomes innovations and reforms in the political, economic, and social order. The Progressive movement, 1901 to 1917, was ultimately the triumph of conservatism rather than a victory for liberalism. In a general sense, the conservative goals of this period justified the Liberal reforms enacted by Progressive leaders. Deviating from the "traditional" definition of conservatism (a resistance to change and a disposition of hostility to innovations in the political, social, and economic order), the Conservatist triumph was in the sense that there was an effort to maintain basic social and economic relations vital to a capitalist society. The Progressive leaders essentially wanted to perpetuate Liberal ...show more content... However, in perusing anti–monopoly law enforcement, Taft and his Attorney General George Wichersham brought44 indictments in anti–trust suites. Taft was successful in healing the Republican split between conservatives and progressives over such issues as tariff reform, conservation, and the almost dictatorial pwer held by Republican Speaker of the House, Joseph Cannon. Taft's inability to bring both wings of the party together led to the hardened division which would bring about a Democratic victory in the 1912 elections. In 1910, Republican progressives joined with Democrats to strip Speaker Cannon of his pwer to appoint the Committee on Rules and serve on it himself. Although critical of Cannon, Taft failed to align himself with the progressives. Also, another event pushing the greater split in the Republican party was the Ballinger–Pinchot Disputes (1909–1910). Progressives backed Gifford Pinchot, chief of the U.S. Forest Service, in his charge that the conservative Secretary of the Interior, Richard Ballinger, was giving away the nation's natural resources to private corporate interests. A congressional investigatory committee found that Ballinger had done nothing illegal, but did act in a manner contrary to the government's environmental policies. Taft had supported Ballinger through the controversy, but negative public opinion forced Ballinger to resign in 1911. Taft's political standing with progressive Republicans hurt the election of Get more content on StudyHub.Vip

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Essay on A Progressive Movement A Progressive Movement 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 . Richard Hofstadter's book The Age of Reform was ...show more content... Filene defines a movement as a "collectivity acting with some continuity to promote or resist a change in the society...one can then analyze its internal characteristics along four dimensions: program, the values which underlie this program, membership and supporters" (20–21). Filene finds the program of a social movement the most important part, for without a program the movement will be unable to sustain itself. His most convincing point is that on so many issues, the Progressives, supposedly a defined and cohesive movement, had numerous splits within their group. For example, "The Federal Reserve Act of 1913 created, according to Arthur Link, a conflict between 'uncompromising' and 'middle–of–the–road' progressives." The most convincing example concerns women's suffrage, "a cause that has generally been attributed to the progressive movement." However, as Filene points out, progressive Presidents Roosevelt and Taft were unwilling to appease feminists with suffrage, and stayed far from the idea for as long as possible. Indeed, if a list of 400 so–called progressives is carefully researched, it may be noted that they are divided almost exactly down the center for and against a woman's right to vote (22–23). In this way, it is clear that Get more content on StudyHub.Vip

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Progressivism Essay Progressivism The Progressive Movement in the late nineteenth century, early twentieth century presented quite a situation for historians to conquer. At the turn of the twentieth century political questioning was the norm. Practically every historian that writes about this time period has a different opinion of what made up " Progressive Movement," some even going so far to beg the question if it was actually a movement or if it was more of an "era." The two are interchanged so often that they have in many ways come to mean the same thing although according to some they are distinctly different. The four works, Richard Hofstadter's The Age of Reform, Peter Filene's "An Obituary for the Progressive Movement," Richard McCormick's "The ...show more content... He discusses the agrarian myth in some depth and argues that the agrarian populism eventually evolves into part of the progressive movement. His book is one of the main sources that Peter Filene argues against in his article questioning the existence progressivism as a movement. Peter Filene's article presents the idea that Progressivism was not a movement at all but more of a jumbled mess of similar ideas that occurred around the same period in history. Filene "seeks to prove that 'the progressive movement' never existed." (Article 1, p. 20) He believed that there are too many discrepancies between the ideas of different historians and that if it were an actual movement that the definitions of the progressive movement/era would be consistent with each other. The only real agreement that Filene finds between the many differing opinions is the goals of the time period. He includes as the "standard list of progressive objectives... constraints on monopolies, trusts and big banking interests; regulation of railroad rates; lower tariffs; the direct primary; initiative, referendum and recall; direct election of U.S. Senators; women's suffrage; child– and female– labor laws; pure food and drug laws and conservation." (Article 1, p. 21) Filene explains the discrepancies between the many historians' views. He then asks the question, with so many different initiatives and so many different groups working towards similar goals how it can be considered Get more content on StudyHub.Vip

Essay about Progressivism Progressivism implies a philosophy which welcomes innovations and reforms in the political, economic, and social order. The Progressive movement, 1901 to 1917, was ultimately the triumph of conservatism rather than a victory for liberalism. In a general sense, the conservative goals of this period justified the Liberal reforms enacted by Progressive leaders. Deviating from the "traditional" definition of conservatism (a resistance to change and a disposition of hostility to innovations in the political, social, and economic order ), the Conservatist triumph was in the sense that there was an effort to maintain basic social and economic relations vital to a capitalist society . The Progressive leaders essentially wanted to perpetuate ...show more content... In 1902, the United Mine Workers were willing to submit to arbitration, but the coal operators adamantly opposed any recognition of the union. Thus, the union members decided to strike over wages, safety conditions, and union recognition. The Anthracite Coal Strike of 1902 ended with the appointment by Roosevelt of an arbitration commission to rule on the issues. Business men did not regard politics ( government regulation ) as a necessary evil, but as an important part of their position in society. Roosevelt did not see big business as evil, but a permanent development that was necessary in a modern economy. Roosevelt couldn't rely on the courts to distinguish between "good" or "bad" trusts. The only solution was for the executive to assume that responsibility. Roosevelt's ingenious "square dealings" and "gentlemen's agreements" controlled many firms. In 1903, a new cabinet position was created to address the concerns of business and labor (Department of Commerce and Labor). Within the department, the Bureau of Corporations was empowered to investigate and report on illegal activities of corporations. The abuse of economic power by railroads proposed another problem for Roosevelt. However, in 1903, the Elkins Act empowered the ICC (Interstate Commerce Commission, first American federal regulatory agency) to act against Get more content on StudyHub.Vip

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The Progressive Era Essay example The Progressive Era The progressive era was a time of great change, the way people thought and what they did began to change quickly. Industry and business also changed a great deal in this era, with the many new inventions and strong businessmen things where rapidly changing. The progressive era lasted about 40 years, from 1879–1920. In 1879 Tomas Edison invented the electric light, I guess you could say he just lit the way for may other inventions that people made during this time period. The progressives where middle class people that where mostly composed of young people who wanted things to change, they believed that educating people was the best way to overcome a problem. They formed volunteer organizations that people would come ...show more content... Teddy Roosevelt was a very strong influence during the progressive era; He used his power a president to get what he wanted as a progressive. He helped things like the pure food and drug act pass, and used the Sherman Antitrust act to dissolve Carnegie's Monopoly. He was a very strong leader and was not about to be pushed around, so it was very good to have him as president during the Progressive era when some are fighting for the new and some are fighting for the old. The city and state reforms, where to stops powerful figures like boss Tweed who was very corrupt and, had everyone in the city in his back pocket. They Reformed so that their wouldn't be just a boss, (a person that made every decision), they made it so the people had to stand behind him on his decisions, their needed to be a vote on all laws that where passed, and all people could try to pass laws with enough peoples support. Also with the reform, workman's compensation became, now if people where hurt to the point they couldn't work, they would be compensated until they could come back. Education was a very big thing to the progressives; Get more content on StudyHub.Vip

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Progressive Movement During the early 1800s to the late 1900s, environmental protection and sustainable economic development was the primary concern of most American citizen. Their concern over national environmental and economic policy and its implementation gives birth to the progressive movement after the American Civil War. The movement gained political roots in national and local politics and strongly advocated for environmental and economic reform. Progressive movement activism increased focus on awareness of environmental policy and took environmental management to a new direction to considered public input in policy decision making, thereby changing public perceptions of environmental degradation, land ownership, pollution and loss of biodiversity. This ...show more content... As a result, enactment of environmental laws and policy implementation developed into a political debate between both Republican and democratic politician in the 1960s. By the end of the 1960s numerous environmental bills aimed at protecting the environmental from pollution, degradation, erosion, deforestation, land ownership were introduced on the floor of the U.S senate. These policy actions action give birth to the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA), a comprehensive environmental policy conceived in the late 1960s by Henry M. Jackson a democratic senator from Washington State and signed into law by President Richard M. Nixon. The National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA), is a landmark environmental policy that has helped in shaping the environmental policy arena and have proven to be one of the most important environmental policy Act of the nineteenth–century. The author of Environmental Law Handbook writes, "The National Environmental Policy Act of 1969(NEPA) has been heralded as the Magna Carta of the country's environmental movement. It was signed into law on January 1, 1970, to address the need for a national environmental policy to guide the growing environmental consciousness and to shape a national response"(Sullivan Get more content on StudyHub.Vip

Progressive Movement Dbq Prior to the Progressive Movement, there were a lot of problems across the United States. People didn't have proper living conditions, children had to work, the government chose whoever they wanted as senator, and monopolies controlled almost the whole industry. Before the Progressive Movement happened, people across the United States were suffering because of the condition they were in. According to Document 1, Jacob Riis', "How the Other Half Lives" was a book showing the conditions of the people living in tenements, and showed how the people there didn't have proper air, and all of it was polluted because of the overcrowding of the small apartments they had to live in. The rooms were also really dark due to the lack of windows, and also Get more content on StudyHub.Vip

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Progressive Movement Research Papers The Progressive Movement "Progressive Education assumes the world changes, and that in a universe that is not particularly concerned with ability to think straight" – Rychard Fink During the early 1900s, the Progressive Movement came to the forefront of what Herbert Kliebard has called "the struggle for the American curriculum." Progressivism consistently challenged traditional ideals concerning the foundations upon which students' education in schools was based. The movement was greatly influenced by the writings of John Dewey, who was inspired by such known political theorists as Vittoriano da Feltre, Campanella, Comenius, Pestalozzi, Rousseau, and Bronson Alcott. In addition to Dewey, such prominent curriculum ...show more content... The organizational thought process that relates all experiential processes is something Dewey named the "Logical Organization of Subject Matter." The second principle, interaction, denotes the concept that what was learned may possibly need revisions, adaptations, or be discarded all together because further research has claimed it to be false. Essentially, from this standpoint, assumptions need to be challenged in the continual search for absolute truth. Thus the interaction principle encouraged experimentalism, verification, and reconstruction. The Progressive Movement was at its peak in the 1930's during the Great Depression in the United States. Previously, in 1918, the Progressive Education Association was founded. Many who supported the movement felt there should be less authoritarianism in the schools, an elimination of set standards for school curriculum, and an emphasis on teaching what the pupils desired to learn. However, the movement did have its share of critics that felt education needed a foundation of basic skills and more discipline. By the early 1940s, such concerns came to the forefront of curriculum theorizing and the Progressive Movement quickly lost its centrality in terms of influencing school practice. The Progressive Movement made a lasting impact on American education in that it challenged traditional practices in education and conceptualized the student as an individual with Get more content on StudyHub.Vip

Progressive Movement Essay

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