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Theodore Roosevelt and Woodrow Wilson's role in the progressive movement
T Roosevelt and progressivism
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The Progressives Theodore Roosevelt once said, “A great democracy has got to be progressive or it will soon cease to be great or a democracy.” (“Quotes About Progressivism”). Multiple historians have different interpretations of the social origins of the progressive reform movement. Historians like George Mowry, Joseph Huthmacher, and Robert H. Wiebe all talk about what they think progressivism was. George Mowry has his own viewpoint on what progressivism is. According to Mowry, the Progressives were that of the middle class. Mowry states, “But the great majority of the reformers came from the “solid middle class,” as it was then called with some pride” (Mowry 255). Also, Mowry states that most people made it out to be that a lot of the reformers …show more content…
The majority of the 400 reformers were lawyers, almost 20% newspaper editors or publishers, and the next biggest group of reformers came from independent manufacturers otherwise known as merchants. The rest of the 400 reformers came from occupations like medicine, banking, and real estate. Mowry gives readers evidence of reformers being of the middle class, and also discredits the wealthy. Mowry said that a statistical study of the sixty wealthy reformers was taken. A majority of those sixty had no steady occupation except for keeping their families money, and only about half of the wealthy reformers went to college. The reformers according to Mowry lived in northern cities by the 1900’s. Religiously speaking, people of Calvin and Knox religion was the majority of the reformers, and Mowry said the leaders of the reforms were recruited from the professional and business classes of society. The middle class reformers were all liberals and struck a lot of conflict with people because they were at sometimes racist towards people, and did not earn the respect of most people. The reformers wanted a large industrial and commercial city economy. This agenda is pretty typical being that most of …show more content…
Wiebe offers his expertise on progressivism and the progressive movement. According to Wiebe, the progressive movement was led by people of a new middle class who were eager to bring order to the world. The workers worked in the modern cities, and had steady jobs. These people worked in business, labor, agriculture, and other professions. This type of background drove a lot of decisions for a lot of the reforms. Large cities of the East and Midwest and the cultivated land regions of the Midwest and South were the centers of the progressive reform according to Wiebe. The main goal of the reformers was to bring organization and efficiency to a rapidly expanding society. Wiebe explains in this article that the progressive reform is at a state level, and according to Wiebe, the biggest part of progressivism was for the middle class to achieve their agenda through the state government. The reformers reached out to reorder the government by themselves and were denied, but did achieve a great deal after that. The new middle class reformers limited the privileges and duration of franchises, and also modernized tax assessment which was a big step for the reformers. Robert H. Wiebe’s viewpoints said that the progressive reform consisted of new middle class members, and they wanted to organize America to make sure it is
...’s suffrage and more social welfare programs. Progressivism focused on eliminating practices harmful to farmers, workers, tenement dwellers, and consumers by expanding government regulation over the economy. They wanted to government to help make it easier for people have more control over their lives. Without the populist the progressive movement would have never been able to complete so many accomplishments. Progressive party did not last but its goals, similar to the populist goals, become influential in the future. The progressive movement was overall a more overcoming movement. It took the populist ideals and influenced them in order to become successful during the progressive movement rather then in the populist. If the populist had an expanded argument rather then just based on farmers then they could have been more successful and setting out their goals.
In the first two decades of the twentieth century the national political scene reflected a growing American belief in the ideas of the Progressive movement. This movement was concerned with fundamental social and economic reforms and gained in popularity under two presidents. Yet Theodore Roosevelt and Woodrow Wilson espoused two different approaches to progressive reform. And each one was able to prevail upon congress to pass legislation in keeping with his own version of the progressive dream. These two people, although they had different principles in mind, had one goal: to make changes to the nation for the better of the people and the country. Setting out to reach this goal, Roosevelt came to be a president of the common man while Wilson became the “better” progressive president.
The Progressive Movement that occurred during the early 20th century was a time of major reform in the United States of America. During this time, there was a group of activists that referred to themselves as the Progressives, and they sought to change society for the people. The way that they intended to do this was change through their ideals of democracy, efficiency, regulation, and social justice. With this movement came the election that changed the course of America’s history “…demonstrating a victory for progressive reforms as both Progressive candidates accounted for 75 percent of all the votes” (Bowles). The candidates in this election were Theodore Roosevelt and Woodrow Wilson.
The Effects of American Reform Movements in the 1900s Living in the United States of America is all about opportunity. The opportunity to get a good job, make money, and lead a life of good quality; in other words, the opportunity to live, live, and live the Pursuit of Happiness. However, the opportunity for many people was not around throughout the 1800s. Certain groups of people did not hold the basic rights that were guaranteed by the Constitution. In fact, most of the people that had opportunity were the wealthy white men, and few other people ever had any chance to lead a good life.
The term Progressivism implies a philosophy that promotes change/reform in the current political, economic, and social aspects of society while conservatism stresses gradual change in society but promotes tradition rather than change. The Progressive movement from 1901 to 1917 worked to improve aspects of society that grew out of problems which occurred during the Industrial Age. The goals of the "Progressives" were to stop monopolies, corruption, inefficiency and social injustices. Both progressive acts and amendments were being passed to deal with social ills, corruption in politics and corporate America. The period from 1901-1917 was more a victory for liberalism, mainly "modern liberalism", than a triumph of conservatism due to the fact that multiple reform movements were occurring in this era changing political, economic, and social aspects in society to protect the rights of the common man.
During the Progressive Era, pressure from labor, suffrage, and conservation movements profoundly changed the course of American history. Many of the reformers' ideas clashed with the male-dominated, capitalist economic structure present at the turn of the century. Some of the intended reforms opposed the current system, but the level of social unrest necessitated change. Businessmen and activists alike initiated the reforms during the Progressive Era. Government, due to the intention of calming the common man and quieting the seemingly more and more vocal middle class, supported them. In the final analysis, from the year 1900 to 1920, Progressive Era reformers were successful in bringing about reform to the United States.
In the beginning of the twentieth century, the economy was booming, new technology flourished. The rapid industrialization brought achievement to the United States, however, it also caused several social problems. Wealth and power were concentrated in the hands of a few, and poverty and political corruption were widespread. As people became aware of these problems, a new reform group was created. Unlike populism, which had been a group of farmers grown desperate as the economy submerged into depression, the new reform movement arose from the educated middle class. These people were known as the progressives. The Progressive Movement was a movement that aimed at solving political, economic, and social problems. The Progressives were people from the middle class who had confidence that they could achieve social progress through political reform. The Progressives sought after changes and improvements in the society through laws and other federal actions.
Thesis The Progressive Era and the New Deal Era had a significant amount of similarities with policies and programs to reform the American society and improve lives and fight poverty in America. Although the Progressive and New Deal Era had many similarities, there were still differences between them. Both the Progressive and the New Deal Era’s main goal was to improve American society. Both of the Progressive and New Deal’s accomplishments were rooted in the economic depression and the need for change before the era, the Guilded age in the 19th century for the Progressive era, and the Great Depression for the New Deal era. As the Guilded Age was ending, and the Progressive Era was emerging, most American families had to live with the harsh reality of sweatshops, slums, child labor, corruption in government and businesses, disease, and racial prejudice.
Within the period of 1900-1920, many national reforms were rising to the top as Progressive Era reformers and the federal government heard the voices of the people. The effectiveness of Progressivism is a controversial subject for some, but the future was changed through the events of any actions a president made, the rights of people, and unfair treatment and conditions. This era brings changes to our society that also changes the future of it. These two decades brought forth successful times in bettering America.
In 1955, Richard Hofstadter wrote his Pulitzer Prize winning book The Age of Reform, about the Gilded Age. Hofstadter’s arguments about the Populist and Progressive movements and their origins started debate and renewed scholarship on the Populist and Progressive movements. Many historians did not agree with Hofstadter’s arguments and published their own papers stating their conclusions based on their own research. This scenario occurs all the time in the history field. One historian writes a book or paper and other historians accept or reject his arguments by doing their own research and making their own conclusions. Many historians wrote about the Progressive era after Hofstadter did. Many historians did not accept his argument of a class revolution as the driving force behind the Populist and Progressive movements. Peter Filene in 1970, Richard L. McCormick in 1981, and Paula Baker in 1984 all wrote papers about the Progressive Movement. To understand the how each author has shaped the historical view of Progressivism, one must analyze the main points of each author, scrutinize their use of evidence and then decide if their argument is persuasive.
After looking closely at all four documents, the Progressive Era ended child labor, improved working conditions, and brought victory to women suffrage. Goals of the movement and people who took part in it have also been highlighted. It is concluded that Progressivism movement was effective and changing American values and lifestyles.
Reform provides permanent programs to avoid another depression and to protect citizens against an economic disaster. The Progressive Movement which targeted urban complications, there was a massive disparity between the wealthy and the poor and the goal was to bring equality into the nation. The movement aimed towards removing corruption and including American citizens into the political process. Additionally, to encourage the government to solve the social issues that were occurring in the late 1800’s and early 20th century, all while balancing impartial treatment into the economic matters.
Reformers known as Progressives attempted to undo the problems caused by industrialization. The Progressive movement sought to end the influence of large corporations, provide more rights and benefits to workers, and end the control possessed by party leaders. At the national level, Progressivism centered on defeating the power of large businesses. The Progressive Era was a period in American history in which improving working conditions, exposing corruption, improving the way of life, expanding democracy, and making reforms were the objectives at hand. With the emergence of the Progressive Era, two important figures gradually emerged as well.
Most people generally believe Progressives lived in cities, were college educated, and wanted change (through government). And this definition does apply to Progressives, but not all of them. According to George Mowry, the majority of Progressives came from the middle class, wanted to advance humanity, and feared losing their “position” in society. Gabriel Kolko argues that big businessmen were Progressives because they inspired the federal regulation during the era. James J. Connolly presents the argument that Progressives were immigrants (lower class) who wanted to gain access to municipal power. Each of these three arguments presents the Progressives in a different class, but Connolly seems most persuasive because of his use of sources and
Progressivism was a movement that came about to cure many of the problems that American society had developed during the 19th century. This reconstruction era lasted until America entered World War I. Progressive’s main belief was in the idea of progress. Along with progress they believed in numerous ideas, which I will further discuss in this paper. Progressives had a strong belief that societies were capable of the improvement of the nation. They tried to fix things socially. They believed in social justice that went beyond just the individual, but for the entire society. Progressivism was the belief that human effort and government action were key to help in any improvement. It was the belief that man was capable of improving society. Therefore, it was a rejection of Social Darwinism.