Americans through Nineteenth Century To 1920s

Americans through Nineteenth Century To 1920s

The Progressive Era or Progressive Movement, from the 1890s to the 1920s, was a major era in American history. It is most famous for political reforms, as proposed by Republicans Theodore Roosevelt, Charles Evans Hughes and Herbert Hoover, and Democrat Woodrow Wilson. The progressive era emphasized efficiency and an end to political corruption, and appealed to well-educated middle class Americans. The progressives strongly supported education, science, and medicine, and saw ignorance as the main problem to overcome. They wanted to purify society, and most supported prohibition and woman suffrage. Jane Addams was the most prominent leader outside government. Progressive ideas also influenced American business, with entrepreneurs like Henry Ford, Andrew Carnegie, John D. Rockefeller and J. P. Morgan, who promoted efficiency. They also gave strong support to philanthropy and to religion, especially worldwide Christian missions. Booker T. Washington was the leading progressive voice in the African American community. In 1912 Roosevelt created a new party, the "Progressive Party" to run for president, but he lost and the party faded away. The 1912 party is only a small part of the entire Progressive movement. The Progressive Era lasted from the 1890s to the 1930s, and influenced all sectors of American society. From the perspective of conservatives in the 21st century, many aspects of the drive for efficiency and against corruption win wide approval. Liberals are split in their evaluation, with many approving the growth of federal power and others opposed to the middle class moralism of the progressives. Progressivism meant expertise, and the use of science, engineering, technology and the new social sciences to identify the nation's problems, and identify ways to eliminate waste and inefficiency and to promote modernization. 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, as exemplified by George Cardinal Mundelein, Oscar Straus and Booker T. Washington.

According to communitarian democracy, citizens should present arguments in terms of reasons internal to the constitutional culture. Additionally, if they have external reasons for advocating a certain policy, they should find suitable translations of their position into the language of and reasoning of liberty, equality, community, and solidarity in American politics and constitutionalism. This does not mean that external reasons are inherently bad, or even that they are inferior to internal reasons ...