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Progressive Era: 1890-1940

The era between 1890-1940s was referred to as the Progressive Era. This was a period in history that was characterized by a lot of political reforms as well as social activism in the United States. When progressivism began, it began as a social movement that would later on grow to become a political movement. The movement begun because many though that change needed to happen in America. America was going through a lot of problems this time especially there were a lot of corrupt leaders in the office. Many wanted to bring down these leaders with the hope that more direct democracy will be established to the people. 1890-1940 was a key period in America history, there was a wave of leadership and people that demanded change in order to help America progress again.

After independence, United States strived to become an economic power house and they concentrated on ensuring urbanization and industrialization was taking off. The middle class were actually said to be the ones that helped stir these changes. They wanted the government to control the many problems they were facing including control of the big businesses and improving the welfare of the government. The journalists referred to as muckrakers highlighted the problems that united states was going through. They were made to realize serious issues the country was going through. The articles by the journalists mostly dwelt on issues including female suffrage, education, industrialization, child labor, problems as a result of urbanization and unionization of workers (Engs, pg98-126). These were several reasons that led to the progressive movement but the main reason was that government had to be more involved in solving problems in the society and protecting the welfare of the Americans. They were also concerned by the corruption and bribery that was taking place due to the spoil system.

Reformers had argued that in order for people to understand democracy, education was important. This era was thus marked with expansion of both private and public school and improvement of the school curriculum in order to ensure that the children had the best education (Reese, pg. 123-156). The government and its corrupt leaders also needed to be fixed. The spoilt system was an arrangement that led to employment of civil servants who were supports of the politicians in power and those against the political system were fired. They were reforms such as allowing the parties to participate and also have power directly in nominating candidates in order to try and tame the political machines. The Seventeenth Amendment also done was to ensure people voted for senators rather than them just being selected by state legislatures.

Industrialization had also led to poor working conditions and were against child labor. They also wanted labor reforms related to the wages and creation of unions by workers. Progressive reforms encompass social reforms, political, city reforms, state reforms and federal reforms (Leonard, pg. 109-141). With the changes being implemented, the legislators had also become close to the people they were representing welfare. A good example is when Maryland, in 1902, was the first state that offered compensation to workers which was referred to as (workmen’s compensation). This was compensation given to the family if the worker died or suffered from disability. There was also protection that was offered to the employees under the Workmen’s Compensation Act that was passed in 1916 (Fishback, pg. 269-298pro). With these improvements, workers were better treated in the industries and were also paid better wages.

During the 1880-1990s women suffrage also became quite popular. There was a great initiative by women where they tried to take up more leadership positions. Most of the women came from urban towns and were middle class. An example of such women include Nellie Peters Black, Julia Flisch and Selena Sloan Butler. They were organized and reached people in the neighborhood through women’s club, civic organizations, charitable organizations in order to get more women to champion for their rights in order to be treated better. The women wanted to also be allowed to vote, in 1919, the 19th Amendment was ratified and women could vote which was a huge win for them (McDonagh, pg. 415-435). Women also championed for better treatment of children as they had been employed as workers and were working in industries including coal mines. By 1910, several states had established minimum age children could work to 12-16 varying in states in the maximum hours they could work.

During the 1890s, alcohol had been said to have negative effect both to the people as well as the economy. Prohibition was also a campaign that characterized the progressive era. At the beginning of the 20th century, many social reformers viewed alcohol as a social evil that had many negative impacts such as breaking down marriages, abuse and violence. Such impacts led to many people advocating for liquor prohibition in the United States of America. Prohibitionists had agreed that the liquor industry posed great threats to the American society and that the only remedy to that would be prohibition. America was also going to participate in the First World war, prohibition campaign was part of forging a patriotic relationship since German Americans were known for having distillery industries. December 1917, the 18th Amendment was approved by the stares and by 1919 all states had approved this amendment. The manufacture, sale and transportation of alcohol was banned

The progressive movement accomplished some of the goals and reforms they were pushing for. There were laws that were passed to protect public health. Big corporation and businesses were regulated and arbitration was part of negotiation process. There was unionization of important industries and workers as a way of helping understand more problems that workers went through. There was a commission system that was introduced in order to replace mayor, city and political machine. Education was improved and hors children were supposed to work were reduced. The 17th amendment was ratified as a way of countering senate corruption. The also helped in passing of 19th amendment that allowed the women to vote. The many amendments that were ratified during this period helped America to become a better nation.

Works Cited

Engs, Ruth Clifford. The progressive era’s health reform movement: a historical dictionary. Greenwood Publishing Group, 2003.

Fishback, Price V. “Workplace safety during the Progressive Era: Fatal accidents in bituminous coal mining, 1912–1923.” Explorations in Economic History 23.3 (1986): 269-298.

Leonard, Thomas C. “American economic reform in the Progressive Era: its foundational beliefs and their relation to eugenics.” History of Political Economy 41.1 (2009): 109-141.

Locke, Joseph L., and Ben Wright, editors. The American Yawp: A Massively Collaborative Open U.S History Textbook, Since. Vol. 2, STANFORD University Press, 2019.

McDonagh, Eileen L., and H. Douglas Price. “Woman suffrage in the Progressive Era: Patterns of opposition and support in referenda voting, 1910-1918.” American Political Science Review 79.2 (2005): 415-435.

Reese, William J. Power and the promise of school reform: Grassroots movements during the progressive era. Teachers College Press, 2002.