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The Progressive Era in the United States
United States

The United States of America is a Federal government constitutional republic comprising U.S. state and a federal district. The country is situated mostly in central North America, where its Contiguous United States and Washington, D.C., the Capital districts and territories, lie between the Pacific Ocean and Atlantic Oceans, Borders of the U...
 was a period of reform which lasted from the 1890s to the 1920's.

Responding to the changes brought about by industrialization,

the Progressives advocated a wide range of economic, political, social, and moral reforms. Initially the movement was successful at local level, and then it progressed to state and gradually national. Both the reformers and their opponents were predominantly members of the middle class
Middle class

Middle class is the group of people in contemporary society who are between the working class and nobility. This socioeconomic class includes professionals, highly skilled workers, and lower and middle management....
.
ificant changes achieved at the national levels included the income tax
Income tax

An income tax is a tax levied on the financial income of people, corporations, or other legal entities. Various income tax systems exist, with varying degrees of tax incidence....
 with the Sixteenth Amendment
Sixteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution

The Sixteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution was ratified on February 3, 1913. This Amendment overruled Pollock v. Farmers' Loan & Trust Co. , which greatly limited U.S....
, direct election of Senators with the Seventeenth Amendment
Seventeenth Amendment to the United States Constitution

The Seventeenth Amendment to the United States Constitution passed the United States Senate on June 12, 1911, the United States House of Representatives on May 13, 1912 and the U.S....
, Prohibition
Prohibition

Prohibition of alcohol, often referred to simply as prohibition, also known as The Noble Experiment, refers to a sumptuary law which prohibits alcohol....
 with the Eighteenth Amendment
Eighteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution

Amendment XVIII of the United States Constitution, along with the Volstead Act , established Prohibition in the United States. Its ratification was certified on January 29, 1919....
, and women's suffrage
Women's suffrage

The term women's suffrage refers to the economic and political reform movement aimed at extending suffrage ? the right to vote ? to women. The movement's modern origins lie in France in the 18th century....
 through the Nineteenth Amendment
Nineteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution

The Nineteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution prohibits each of the U.S. state and the federal government of the United States from denying any citizen the right to vote because of that citizen's sex....
 to the U.S.






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The Progressive Era in the United States
United States

The United States of America is a Federal government constitutional republic comprising U.S. state and a federal district. The country is situated mostly in central North America, where its Contiguous United States and Washington, D.C., the Capital districts and territories, lie between the Pacific Ocean and Atlantic Oceans, Borders of the U...
 was a period of reform which lasted from the 1890s to the 1920's.

Responding to the changes brought about by industrialization,

the Progressives advocated a wide range of economic, political, social, and moral reforms. Initially the movement was successful at local level, and then it progressed to state and gradually national. Both the reformers and their opponents were predominantly members of the middle class
Middle class

Middle class is the group of people in contemporary society who are between the working class and nobility. This socioeconomic class includes professionals, highly skilled workers, and lower and middle management....
.

Reform

Significant changes achieved at the national levels included the income tax
Income tax

An income tax is a tax levied on the financial income of people, corporations, or other legal entities. Various income tax systems exist, with varying degrees of tax incidence....
 with the Sixteenth Amendment
Sixteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution

The Sixteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution was ratified on February 3, 1913. This Amendment overruled Pollock v. Farmers' Loan & Trust Co. , which greatly limited U.S....
, direct election of Senators with the Seventeenth Amendment
Seventeenth Amendment to the United States Constitution

The Seventeenth Amendment to the United States Constitution passed the United States Senate on June 12, 1911, the United States House of Representatives on May 13, 1912 and the U.S....
, Prohibition
Prohibition

Prohibition of alcohol, often referred to simply as prohibition, also known as The Noble Experiment, refers to a sumptuary law which prohibits alcohol....
 with the Eighteenth Amendment
Eighteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution

Amendment XVIII of the United States Constitution, along with the Volstead Act , established Prohibition in the United States. Its ratification was certified on January 29, 1919....
, and women's suffrage
Women's suffrage

The term women's suffrage refers to the economic and political reform movement aimed at extending suffrage ? the right to vote ? to women. The movement's modern origins lie in France in the 18th century....
 through the Nineteenth Amendment
Nineteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution

The Nineteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution prohibits each of the U.S. state and the federal government of the United States from denying any citizen the right to vote because of that citizen's sex....
 to the U.S. Constitution.

Muckraker
Muckraker

A muckraker is an individual who seeks to expose or reveal the real or apparent corruption of businesses or governments to the public. The term originates from members of the Progressive movement in America who wanted to expose the corruption and scandals in government and business....
s were journalists who exposed waste, corruption, and scandal in the highly influential new medium of national magazines, such as McClure's
McClure's

McClure's or McClure's Magazine was an American illustrated monthly periodical popular at the turn of the 20th century. It was often compared to The Atlantic Monthly....
. Progressives shared a common belief in the ability of science, technology and disinterested expertise to identify problems and come up with the best solution.

Progressives moved to enable the citizenry to rule more directly and circumvent political bosses; California
California

California is a U.S. state on the West Coast of the United States of the United States, along the Pacific Ocean. It is bordered by Oregon to the north, Nevada to the east, Arizona to the southeast, and to the south the Mexico state of Baja California....
, Wisconsin
Wisconsin

Wisconsin is one of the fifty U.S. state in the United States of America, located in the north central part of the United States. It borders two of the five Great Lakes and four U.S....
, and Oregon
Oregon

Oregon is a U.S. state in the Pacific Northwest region of the United States. The area was inhabited by many indigenous tribes before the arrival of traders, explorers and settlers....
 took the lead. California governor Hiram Johnson
Hiram Johnson

Hiram Warren Johnson was a leading United States progressivism and later isolationist politician from California; he served as Governor of California from 1911 to 1917, and as a United States Senate from 1917 to 1945....
 established the initiative
Initiative

In political science, the initiative provides a means by which a petition signed by a certain minimum number of registered voters can force a public vote on a proposed statute, constitutional amendment, charter amendment or local ordinance, or, in its minimal form, to simply oblige the executive or legislative bodies to consider the subject...
, referendum
Referendum

A referendum , ballot question, or plebiscite is a direct vote in which an entire Constituency is asked to either accept or reject a particular proposal....
, and recall
Recall election

A recall election is a procedure by which voters can remove an elected official from office. Recall has a history dating back to the ancient Athenian democracy....
, viewing them as good influences for citizen participation against the historic influence of large corporations on state assembly. About 16 states began using primary election
Primary election

A primary election , also referred to simply as a primary, is an election in which voters in a jurisdiction select candidates for a subsequent election....
s. Many cities set up municipal reference bureaus to study the budgets and administrative structures of local governments. In Illinois
Illinois

The State of Illinois is a U.S. state of the United States, the 21st to be admitted to the United States. Illinois is the most populous and demographically diverse Midwestern United States state and the fifth most populous state in the nation....
, Governor Frank Lowden undertook a major reorganization of state government. In Wisconsin, the stronghold of Robert LaFollette, the Wisconsin Idea
Wisconsin Idea

The Wisconsin Idea may refer to education policies or political philosophies developed in the United States state of Wisconsin....
, used the state university as the source of ideas and expertise. Characteristics of progressivism included a favorable attitude toward urban-industrial society, belief in mankind's ability to improve the environment and conditions of life, belief in obligation to intervene in economic and social affairs, and a belief in the ability of experts and in efficiency of government intervention.

See also

  • President Theodore Roosevelt
    Theodore Roosevelt

    Theodore Roosevelt , also known as T.R., and to the public as Teddy, was the List of Presidents of the United States President of the United States....
     (Republican, 1901-1909)
  • Trust-busting
    Trust-busting

    Trust-busting is any government activity designed to break up Trust s or monopoly. Theodore Roosevelt is the U.S. president most associated with dissolving trusts....
  • Upton Sinclair
    Upton Sinclair

    Upton Sinclair, Jr. , was a Pulitzer Prize-winning prolific United States author who wrote over 90 books in many genres and was widely considered to be one of the best investigators advocating Socialism views....
    , The Jungle
    The Jungle

    The Jungle is a 1906 in literature novel written by author and Socialism journalist Upton Sinclair. It was written about the corruption of the United States meatpacking industry during the early 20th century....
     (1906)


Notable progressives


Further reading


Overviews

  • Buenker, John D., John C. Burnham, and Robert M. Crunden. Progressivism (1986)
  • Buenker, John D. and Joseph Buenker, Eds. Encyclopedia of the Gilded Age and Progressive Era. Sharpe Reference, 2005. xxxii + 1256 pp. in three volumes. ISBN 0-7656-8051-3. 900 articles by 200 scholars
  • Buenker, John D. Dictionary of the Progressive Era (1980)
  • Crunden, Robert M. Ministers of Reform: The Progressives' Achievement in American Civilization, 1889-1920 (1982)
  • Diner, Steven J. A Very Different Age: Americans of the Progressive Era (1998)
  • Glad, Paul W. "Progressives and the Business Culture of the 1920s," The Journal of American History, Vol. 53, No. 1. (Jun., 1966), pp. 75-89.
  • Gould Lewis L. America in the Progressive Era, 1890-1914" (2000)
  • Gould Lewis L. ed., The Progressive Era (1974)
  • Hays, Samuel D. The Response to Help Me, 1885-1914 (1957),
  • Hofstadter, Richard
    Richard Hofstadter

    Richard Hofstadter was an United States historian and DeWitt Clinton Professor of American History at Columbia University. One of the leading public intellectuals of the 1950s, his works include The Age of Reform and Anti-intellectualism in American Life , both of which won the Pulitzer Prize?the former for History and the latter fo...
    ,     The Age of Reform
    The Age of Reform

    The Age of Reform is a 1955 Pulitzer Prize-winning book by Richard Hofstadter. The book is an United States history that traces events from the Populism of the 1890s through the Progressive Era ending with the New Deal in the 1930s....
     (1954), Pulitzer Prize
  • Jensen, Richard. "Democracy, Republicanism and Efficiency: The Values of American Politics, 1885-1930," in Byron Shafer and Anthony Badger, eds, Contesting Democracy: Substance and Structure in American Political History, 1775-2000 (U of Kansas Press, 2001) pp 149-180;
  • Kennedy, David M
    David M. Kennedy (historian)

    David M. Kennedy is a Pulitzer Prize-winning historian specializing in American history. He is the Donald J. McLachlan Professor of History at Stanford University and the Director of the Center for the Study of the North American West....
    . ed.,     Progressivism: The Critical Issues (1971), readings
  • Lasch, Christopher. The True and Only Heaven: Progress and its Critics (1991)
  • Leuchtenburg, William E.
    William Leuchtenburg

    William E. Leuchtenburg is William Rand Kenan Jr. professor emeritus of history at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, North Carolina and the leading scholar of the life of Franklin Delano Roosevelt....
     "Progressivism and Imperialism: The Progressive Movement and American Foreign Policy, 1898-1916,"     The Mississippi Valley Historical Review, Vol. 39, No. 3. (Dec., 1952), pp. 483-504.
  • Mann, Arthur. ed., The Progressive Era (1975), readings of women's suffrage (1999)
  • McGerr, Michael. A Fierce Discontent: The Rise and Fall of the Progressive Movement in America, 1870-1920 (2003)
  • Noggle, Burl. "The Twenties: A New Historiographical Frontier," The Journal of American History, Vol. 53, No. 2. (Sep., 1966), pp. 299-314.
  • Pease, Otis, ed. The Progressive Years: The Spirit and Achievement of American Reform (1962), primary documents
  • Thelen, David P. "Social Tensions and the Origins of Progressivism," Journal of American History 56 (1969), 323-341 online at JSTOR
  • Wiebe, Robert. The Search For Order, 1877-1920 (1967).


  • Howard K. Beale|Beale Howard K. Theodore Roosevelt and the Rise of America to World Power. (1956).
  • Blum, John Morton.
    John Morton Blum

    John Morton Blum was one of the United States' pre-eminent political historians from the 1940s to the early 1990s. Now retired, he lives in New Haven, Connecticut....
         The Republican Roosevelt. (1954). Series of essays that examine how TR did politics
  • Brands, H.W. Theodore Roosevelt (2001).
  • Clements, Kendrick A. The Presidency of Woodrow Wilson (1992).
  • Coletta, Paolo. The Presidency of William Howard Taft (1990).
  • Cooper, John Milton The Warrior and the Priest: Woodrow Wilson and Theodore Roosevelt. (1983).
  • Gould, Lewis L. The Presidency of Theodore Roosevelt (1991).
  • Harbaugh, William Henry. The Life and Times of Theodore Roosevelt. (1963).
  • Harrison, Robert. Congress, Progressive Reform, and the New American State (2004).
  • Hofstadter, Richard
    Richard Hofstadter

    Richard Hofstadter was an United States historian and DeWitt Clinton Professor of American History at Columbia University. One of the leading public intellectuals of the 1950s, his works include The Age of Reform and Anti-intellectualism in American Life , both of which won the Pulitzer Prize?the former for History and the latter fo...
    .     The American Political Tradition (1948), ch. 8-9-10.
  • Kolko, Gabriel
    Gabriel Kolko

    Gabriel Kolko is a historian and author.Kolko received his Ph.D. from Harvard in 1962. Following graduation he taught at the University of Pennsylvania and at SUNY-Buffalo....
    . "The Triumph of Conservatism" (1963).
  • Link, Arthur Stanley
    Arthur Link

    Arthur Link is the name of:*Arthur A. Link , Governor of North Dakota*Arthur S. Link , American historian...
    .     Woodrow Wilson and the Progressive Era, 1910-1917 (1972).
  • Morris, Edmund Theodore Rex. (2001), biography covers 1901-1909
  • Mowry, George E. Theodore Roosevelt and the Progressive Movement. (2001).
  • Pestritto, R.J. "Woodrow Wilson and the Roots of Modern Liberalism." (Rowman and Littlefield, 2005).
  • Sanders, Elizabeth. Roots of Reform: Farmers, Workers and the American State, 1877-1917 (1999).
  • Wilson, Joan Hoff. Herbert Hoover, Forgotten Progressive (1965).
  • Bert, Antwon. "Progressive action" (1998)


State, local, ethnic, gender, business, labor

  • Abell, Aaron I. American Catholicism and Social Action: A Search for Social Justice, 1865-1950 (1960),
  • Bruce, Kyle and Chris Nyland. "Scientific Management, Institutionalism, and Business Stabilization: 1903-1923" Journal of Economic Issues, Vol. 35, 2001
  • Buenker, John D. Urban Liberalism and Progressive Reform (1973).
  • Buenker, John D. The Progressive Era, 1893-1914 (1998), in Wisconsin
  • Feffer, Andrew. The Chicago Pragmatists and American Progressivism (1993).
  • Frankel, Noralee and Nancy S. Dye, eds. Gender, Class, Race, and Reform in the Progressive Era (1991).
  • Hahn, Steven. A Nation under Our Feet: Black Political Struggles in the Rural South from Slavery to the Great Migration (2003).
  • Huthmacher, J. Joseph. "Urban Liberalism and the Age of Reform" Mississippi Valley Historical Review 49 (1962): 231-241, ; emphasized urban, ethnic, working class support for reform
  • Link, William A. The Paradox of Southern Progressivism, 1880-1930 (1997).
  • Montgomery, David. The Fall of the House of Labor: The workplace, the state, and American labor activism, 1865-1925 (1987).
  • Muncy, Robyn. Creating A Feminine Dominion in American Reform, 1890-1935 (1991).
  • Lubove, Roy. The Progressives and the Slums: Tenement House Reform in New York City, 1890-1917 Greenwood Press: 1974.
  • Recchiuti, John Louis. Civic Engagement: Social Science and Progressive-Era Reform in New York City (2007).
  • Rodgers, Daniel T. Atlantic Crossings: Social Politics in a Progressive Age (Harvard University Press; New Ed. 2000). stresses links with Europe
  • Rosenzweig, Roy. Eight Hours For What We Will: Workers & Leisure in an Industrial City, 1870-1920 (1983).
  • Stromquist, Shelton. Reinventing 'The People': The Progressive Movement, the Class Problem, and the Origins of Modern Liberalism, University of Illinois Press, 2006. ISBN 0-252-07269-3.
  • Thelen, David. The New Citizenship, Origins of Progressivism in Wisconsin, 1885-1900 (1972).
  • Wesser, Robert F. Charles Evans Hughes: politics and reform in N.Y. 1905-1910 (1967).
  • Wiebe, Robert. "Business Disunity and the Progressive Movement, 1901-1914," The Mississippi Valley Historical Review, Vol. 44, No. 4. (Mar., 1958), pp. 664-685.