Progressive Era

Template:Progressivism In the United States, the Progressive Era was a period of reform which lasted from the 1890s through the 1920s. The people at the time called it the "Progressive Era" but historians ever since have debated whether or not it was dominated by the old middle class or included ethnic workers, whether it began with Theodore Roosevelt becoming president in 1901 or started as a taxpayer revolt in the 1890s, whether it ended with World War I or continued into the 1920s, whether it was a precursor to the New Deal, and how much was influenced by European ideas.

The reformers of the Progressive Era advocated the Efficiency Movement. Progressives assumed that anything old was encrusted with inefficient and useless practices. A scientific study of the problem would enable experts to discover the "one best solution." Progressives strongly opposed waste and corruption, and tended to assume that opponents were motivated by ignorance or corruption. They sought change in all policies at all levels of society, economy and government. Initially the movement was successful at local level, and then it progressed to state and gradually national. The reformers (and their opponents) were predominantly members of the middle class. Most were well educated, white, Protestants who lived in the cities. Catholics, Jews and African Americans had their own versions of the Progressive Movement. See George Cardinal Mundelein, Oscar Straus and Booker T. Washington.

Women came to the fore in the Progressive era and proved their value as social workers. The suffrage movement was a key part of Progressivism. It started in the west (with California giving the women the vote in 1912 after several smaller states), and moved east. It was opposed by ethnic machines in the northeast and traditionalists in the South, but finally became law by Constitutional amendment (the 19th) in August 1920.

The Progressives pushed for social justice, general equality and public safety, but there were contradictions within the movement, especially regarding race. To many Progressives, especially in the South, black suffrage was a corrupting force (the votes were presumably purchased or controlled by ministers) and had to be minimized. The Catholics had their own version of the movement which they applied to their schools, colleges, and hospitals.

Almost all major politicians declared their adherence to some progressive measures. In politics the most prominent national figures were Republicans Theodore Roosevelt and Robert LaFollette and Democrats William Jennings Bryan and Woodrow Wilson.

The Progressives tried to permanently fix their reforms into law by constitutional amendments, included Prohibition with the 18th Amendment and women's suffrage by the 19th amendment, both in 1920 as well as the federal income tax with the 16th amendment and direct election of senators with the 17th amendment. After Progressivism collapsed, the 18th amendment was repealed (in 1933).

Muckrakers were journalists who exposed waste, corruption and scandal in the highly influential new medium of national magazines, such as McClure's. Progressives shared a common belief in the ability of science, technology and disinterested expertise to identify all problems and come up with the one best solution.

Progressives moved to enable the citizenry to rule more directly and circumvent political bosses; California, Wisconsin and Oregon took the lead. California and Oregon established the Initiative, Referendum, and Recall. About 16 states began using Primary elections. Many cities set up municipal reference bureaus to study the budgets and administrative structures of local governments. In Illinois, governor Frank Lowden undertook a major reorganization of state government. In Wisconsin, the stronghold of Robert LaFollette, the Wisconsin Idea, inspired by Charles McCarthy, used the state university as the source of ideas and expertise.

Notable Progressive political leaders

• Nelson Aldrich, Rhode Island, on money issues
• Albert J. Beveridge, Indiana
• William Jennings Bryan, Nebraska
• Herbert Hoover, Washington
• Hiram Johnson, California
• Tom L. Johnson, Cleveland, OH
• Samuel M. Jones, Toledo, OH
• Robert LaFollette, Wisconsin
• Seth Low, New York City
• Frank Lowden, Illinois
• George Norris, Nebraska
• George W. Perkins, New York City
• Franklin D. Roosevelt, New York
• Theodore Roosevelt, New York City
• Al Smith, New York City
• William Howard Taft, Washington
• William S. U'Ren, Oregon
• Booker T. Washington, Tuskeegee, AL
• William Allen White, Emporia, Kansas
• Woodrow Wilson, Princeton NJ
• Leonard Wood, Washington

Notable Progressive intellectuals, writers, advocates

• Jane Addams, social worker, peace advocate
• Charles Beard, historian of US; political scientist
• Franz Boas, anthropologist
• Louis Brandeis, lawyer
• Nicholas Murray Butler, president of Columbia U.
• Andrew Carnegie, philanthropist
• George Washington Carver, black chemist
• John Dewey, philosopher
• W.E.B. Du Bois, black leader
• Thomas Edison, inventor
• Irving Fisher, economist
• Henry Ford, industrialist
• Charlotte Perkins Gilman
• Lewis Hine, photographer
• Walter Lippmann
• Charles McCarthy, Wisconsin Idea
• John R. Mott
• George Cardinal Mundelein, Catholic archbishop of Chicago
• Ulrich B. Phillips, historian of South
• Jacob Riis
• John D. Rockefeller, Jr., philanthropist
• Theodore Roosevelt, writer (and president)
• Upton Sinclair, writer
• Albion Small, sociologist
• Ellen Gates Starr, social worker
• Lincoln Steffens, Muckraking journalist
• Ida Tarbell, Muckraking journalist
• Frederick Winslow Taylor, efficiency expert
• Frederick Jackson Turner, historian of West
• Thorstein Veblen, economist
• Booker T. Washington, black leader
• Ida B. Wells, black leader
• William Allen White, editor
• Woodrow Wilson, author (and President)

References

Overviews

• Buenker, John D., John C. Burnham, and Robert M. Crunden. Progressivism (1986) short overview
• 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)
• Gould Lewis L. America in the Progressive Era, 1890-1914" (2000)
• Gould Lewis L. ed., The Progressive Era (1974)
• Hays, Samuel P. The Response to Industrialism, 1885-1914 (1957), influential survey
• Hofstadter, Richard The Age of Reform (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; online version
• Kennedy, David M. ed., Progressivism: The Critical Issues (1971), readings
• Leuchtenburg, William E. "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. JSTOR
• Mann, Arthur. ed., The Progressive Era (1975), readings
• Lasch, Christopher. The True and Only Heaven: Progress and its Critics (1991)
• McGerr, Michael. A Fierce Discontent: The Rise and Fall of the Progressive Movement in America, 1870-1920 (2003)
• Mowry, George. The Era of Theodore Roosevelt and the Birth of Modern America, 1900-1912. (1954) general survey of era; online
• Noggle, Burl. "The Twenties: A New Historiographical Frontier," The Journal of American History, Vol. 53, No. 2. (Sep., 1966), pp. 299-314. in JSTOR
• Perry, Elisabeth Israels and Karen Manners Smith, eds. The Gilded Age & Progressive Era: A Student Companion (2006)
• 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) influential survey

National politics

• Beale Howard K. Theodore Roosevelt and the Rise of America to World Power. (1956).
• Blum, John Morton The Republican Roosevelt. (1954). Series of essays that examine how TR did politics
• Brands, H.W. Theodore Roosevelt (2001), biography online edition
• 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. The American Political Tradition (1948), ch. 8-9-10 on Bryan, Roosevelt and Wilson.
• Link, Arthur Stanley. Woodrow Wilson and the Progressive Era, 1910-1917 (1972)
• Morris, Edmund Theodore Rex. (2001), biography of Theodore Roosevelt covers 1901-1909
• Mowry, George E. Theodore Roosevelt and the Progressive Movement. (2001)
• Sanders, Elizabeth. Roots of Reform: Farmers, Workers and the American State, 1877-1917 (1999)
• Joan Hoff Wilson. Herbert Hoover, Forgotten Progressive (1965)

Business and labor

• 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. in JSTOR
• Kolko, Gabriel. "The Triumph of Conservatism" (1963), Progressive reforms helped business
• Kyle, Bruce and Chris Nyland; "Scientific Management, Institutionalism, and Business Stabilization: 1903-1923" Journal of Economic Issues, Vol. 35, 2001
• Sanders, Elizabeth. Roots of Reform: Farmers, Workers and the American State, 1877-1917 (1999)
• Wiebe, Robert H. Businessmen and Reform: A Study of the Progressive Movement (1968)
  • Robert H. Wiebe. "Business Disunity and the Progressive Movement, 1901-1914," The Mississippi Valley Historical Review, Vol. 44, No. 4. (Mar., 1958), pp. 664-685. in JSTOR

State, local, ethnic, gender

• Abell, Aaron I. American Catholicism and Social Action: A Search for Social Justice, 1865-1950 (1960),
• Buenker, John D. Urban Liberalism and Progressive Reform (1973).
• Buenker, John D. The Progressive Era, 1893-1914 (1998), in Wisconsin
• 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, in JSTOR; emphasized urban, ethnic, working class support for reform
• Link, William A. The Paradox of Southern Progressivism, 1880-1930 (1997).
• Feffer, Andrew. The Chicago Pragmatists and American Progressivism (1993).
• Lubove, Roy. The Progressives and the Slums: Tenement House Reform in New York City, 1890-1917 Greenwood Press: 1974.
• Rodgers, Daniel T. Atlantic Crossings: Social Politics in a Progressive Age (2000). stresses links with Europe
• 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 New York, 1905-1910 (1967).

Primary sources=

• Pease, Otis, ed. The Progressive Years: The Spirit and Achievement of American Reform (1962), primary documents

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