Progressive Era

The Progressive Era was a movement of reform that began in America's cities beginning in the 1900's. Reformers sought change in labor and fiscal policies in different levels of government; initially it was successful at local level, then progressed to state and gradually national. Many reforms dotted this era, including the nineteenth amendment to the constitution: women's suffrage in 1920. Muckrackers, a term given to the reaction-producing writers of the time period by Theodore Roosevelt (1901-1909), were among some of the best examples of progressive reformers. Progressives shared a common belief in the ability of human nature to improve by bettering its living and working conditions.