The Progressive Era (1890s–1920s) was a period in the United States characterized by multiple social and political reform efforts.John D. Buenker, John C. Boosham, and Robert M. Crunden, Progressivism (1986) pp. 3–21Arthur S. Link, "What Happened to the Progressive Movement in the 1920s?." American Historical Review 64.4 (1959): 833–851. Reformers during this era, known as Progressives, sought to address issues they associated with rapid industrialization, urbanization, immigration, and political corruption, as well as the loss of competition in the market due to trusts and monopolies, and the great concentration of wealth and political power among a very few individuals. Reformers expressed concern about slums, poverty, and labor conditions. Multiple overlapping movements pursued social, political, and economic reforms by advocating changes in governance, scientific methods, and professionalism; regulating business; protecting the natural environment; and seeking to improve urban living and working conditions.
Corrupt and undemocratic political machines and their oligarch bosses were a major target of progressive reformers. To revitalize democracy, progressives established direct primary elections, direct election of senators (rather than by state legislatures), initiatives and referendums, and women's suffrage (which was promoted to advance democracy and bring the presumed moral influence of women into politics).On purification, see David W. Southern, The Malignant Heritage: Yankee Progressives and the Negro Question, 1900–1915 (1968); Southern, The Progressive Era And Race: Reaction And Reform 1900–1917 (2005); Norman H. Clark, Deliver Us from Evil: An Interpretation of American Prohibition (1976) p. 170; and Aileen Kraditor, The Ideas of the Woman Suffrage Movement: 1890–1920 (1967). 134–136. For many progressives, prohibition of alcoholic beveragesJames H. Timberlake, Prohibition and the Progressive Movement, 1900–1920 (1970) pp. 1–7. was key to eliminating corruption in politics as well as improving social conditions.
Progressives also targeted monopolies, which they worked to regulate through trustbusting and antitrust laws with the goal of promoting fair competition, and advocated new government agencies focused on regulation of industry. Other goals were using scientific, medical, and engineering solutions to reform government and education, and fostering improvements in fields including medicine, finance, insurance, industry, railroads, and churches. Progressives aimed to professionalize the social sciences, especially history, economics, and political science, and improve efficiency with scientific management (Taylorism).Lewis L. Gould, America in the Progressive Era, 1890–1914 (2000)David B. Tyack, The One Best System: A History of American Urban Education (Harvard UP, 1974), p. 39
Initially, the movement operated chiefly at the local level, but later it expanded to the state and national levels. Progressive leaders were often from the educated middle class, and various progressive reform efforts drew support from lawyers, teachers, physicians, ministers, business people, and the working class.George Mowry, The California Progressives (1963) p. 91.
Originators of progressive ideals and efforts Certain key groups of thinkers, writers, and activists played key roles in creating or building the movements and ideas that came to define the shape of the Progressive Era.
Popular democracy: Initiative and referendum Inspiration for the initiative movement was based on the Swiss experience. New Jersey labor activist James W. Sullivan had an interest in the direct legislation process of Switzerland, and visited the country in 1888. After this, he wrote a series of detailed articles about the Swiss government for the New York Times, which then became the first several chapters of his 1893 book: Direct Legislation by the Citizenship Through the Initiative and Referendum. Sullivan's book became a template for reformers pushing the same ideas. He suggested that using the initiative would give political power to the working class and reduce the need for strikes. Sullivan's book was first widely read on the left, as by labor activists, socialists and populists. William U'Ren was an early convert who used it to build the Oregon reform crusade. By 1900, middle-class "progressive" reformers everywhere were studying it.
Muckraking: exposing corruption
Magazines experienced a boost in popularity in 1900, with some attaining circulations in the hundreds of thousands of subscribers. In the beginning of the age of mass media, the rapid expansion of national advertising led the cover price of popular magazines to fall sharply to about 10 cents, lessening the financial barrier to consume them. Another factor contributing to the dramatic upswing in magazine circulation was the prominent coverage of corruption in politics, local government, and big business, particularly by journalists and writers who became known as muckrakers. They wrote for popular magazines to expose social and political sins and shortcomings. Relying on their own investigative journalism, muckrakers often worked to expose social ills and corporate and political corruption. Muckraking magazines, notably McClure's, took on corporate monopolies and political machines while raising public awareness of chronic urban poverty, unsafe working conditions, and social issues like child labor.Herbert Shapiro, ed., The muckrakers and American society (Heath, 1968), contains representative samples as well as academic commentary. Most of the muckrakers wrote nonfiction, but fictional exposés often had a major impact as well, such as those by Upton Sinclair.Judson A. Grenier, "Muckraking the muckrakers: Upton Sinclair and his peers." in David R Colburn and Sandra Pozzetta, eds., Reform and Reformers in the Progressive Era (1983) pp: 71–92. In his 1906 novel The Jungle, Sinclair exposed the unsanitary and unsafe working conditions of the meatpacking industry in graphic detail hoping to arouse working class solidarity. He quipped, "I aimed at the public's heart and by accident, I hit it in the stomach," as readers demanded and got the Meat Inspection ActThe Meat Inspection Act and the Pure Food and Drug Act.Arlene F. Kantor, "Upton Sinclair and the Pure Food and Drugs Act of 1906.: 'I aimed at the public's heart and by accident, I hit it in the stomach'." American Journal of Public Health 66.12 (1976): 1202–1205.
The journalists who specialized in exposing waste, corruption, and scandal operated at the state and local level, like Ray Stannard Baker, George Creel, and Brand Whitlock. Others such as Lincoln Steffens exposed political corruption in many large cities; Ida Tarbell is famed for her criticisms of John D. Rockefeller's Standard Oil Company. In 1906, David Graham Phillips unleashed a blistering indictment of corruption in the US Senate. Roosevelt gave these journalists their nickname when he complained they were not being helpful by raking up too much muck.Robert Miraldi, ed. The Muckrakers: Evangelical Crusaders (Praeger, 2000)Harry H. Stein, "American Muckrakers and Muckraking: The 50-Year Scholarship", Journalism Quarterly, (1979) 56#1 pp. 9–17.
Modernization
The progressives were avid modernizers, with a belief in science and technology as the grand solution to society's flaws. They looked to education as the key to bridging the gap between their present wasteful society and technologically enlightened future society. 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 an obligation to intervene in economic and social affairs, a belief in the ability of experts and in the efficiency of government intervention.John D. Buenker, and Robert M. Crunden. Progressivism (1986); Maureen Flanagan, America Reformed: Progressives and Progressivisms, 1890 – the 1920s (2007)Samuel Haber, Efficiency and Uplift Scientific Management in the Progressive Era 1890–1920 (1964) 656 Scientific management, as promulgated by Frederick Winslow Taylor, became a watchword for industrial efficiency and elimination of waste, with the stopwatch as its symbol.Daniel Nelson, Frederick W. Taylor and the Rise of Scientific Management (1970).
Philanthropy The number of rich families climbed exponentially, from 100 or so millionaires in the 1870s to 4,000 in 1892 and 16,000 in 1916. Many subscribed to Andrew Carnegie's credo outlined in The Gospel of Wealth that said they owed a duty to society that called for philanthropic giving to colleges, hospitals, medical research, libraries, museums, religion, and social betterment.Olivier Zunz, Philanthropy in America: A History (2012) ch 1 excerpt and text search
In the early 20th century, American philanthropy matured, with the development of very large, highly visible private foundations created by Rockefeller and Carnegie. The largest foundations fostered modern, efficient, business-oriented operations (as opposed to "charity") designed to better society rather than merely enhance the status of the giver. Close ties were built with the local business community, as in the "community chest" movement.Nikki Mandell, "Allies or Antagonists? Philanthropic Reformers and Business Reformers in the Progressive Era", Journal of the Gilded Age and Progressive Era (2012), 11#1 71–117. The American Red Cross was reorganized and professionalized.Branden Little. "Review of Jones, Marian Moser, The American Red Cross from Clara Barton to the New Deal" H-SHGAPE, H-Net Reviews. August 2013, online Several major foundations aided the blacks in the South and were typically advised by Booker T. Washington. By contrast, Europe and Asia had few foundations. This allowed both Carnegie and Rockefeller to operate internationally with a powerful effect.Zunz, p. 42
Middle-class values
A hallmark group of the Progressive Era, the middle class became the driving force behind much of the thought and reform that took place in this time. The middle class was characterized by their rejection of the individualistic philosophy of the Upper ten thousand.Roger E. Wyman, "Middle-class voters and progressive reform: The conflict of class and culture." American Political Science Review 68.2 (1974): 488-504. They had a rapidly growing interest in the communication and role between classes, those of which are generally referred to as the upper class, working class, farmers, and themselves. Along these lines, Jane Addams coined the term "association" as a counter to Individualism, with association referring to the search for a relationship between the classes. Additionally, the middle class (most notably women) began to move away from prior Victorian era domestic values. Divorce rates increased as women preferred to seek education and freedom from the home.Paul R. Amato, and Shelley Irving, "Historical trends in divorce in the United States." in Handbook of divorce and relationship dissolution (Psychology Press, 2013) pp. 57–74. If a divorce could not be afforded, a much more common option would have been to desert the wife and any potential children instead, forcing the wife into the workforce. Victorianism was thus pushed aside by the rise of progressivism.
Leaders and activists
Democrats