Progressive Era
In the United States, the Progressive Era was a movement of reform that began in America's cities in the 1890s and lasted through the 1910s. Reformers sought change in labor and fiscal policies in different levels of government; initially it was successful at local level, and then it progressed to state and gradually national.
Many reforms dotted this era, including Prohibition with the 18th Amendment and women's suffrage through the Nineteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, both in 1920 as well as the initiation of the Income Tax with the Sixteenth Amendment. Muckrakers, a term given to the reaction-producing writers of the time period by President 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.
Another famous Progressive of the era was Robert M. La Follette, Sr.
Related topics
- Haymarket Riot
- Pullman Strike
- Triangle Factory fire
- Trust-busting
- History of the United States (1865-1918)