Progressive movement quick summary

Discuss the Progressive movement in the United States during the late 1800’s and early 1900’s.  Be sure to discuss the role of reformers and presidents and the issues they addressed. Assess how successful they were in bringing about change.

Progressives have elements of Christianity, education, and middle class citizens; leans on the middle of communizing and capitalism. They begin with the specific agenda to clean up the nation’s cities. But it grew more than that it grew to political, social and educational reforms. Politicians of all kinds were careful to depict themselves as Progressives, even if their record showed them to be dyed-in-the-wool conservatives. The fact that such a wide array of political types claimed the Progressive label illustrates how powerful the Progressive impulse had become. Progressives sought to change the way Americans lived by crafting laws against what they saw as social wrongs. In addition to the many trust busting, tariff, and voting laws they advocated, progressives used  the courts to limit the number of hours women and children could work and to end the most brutal forms racial antagonism. They sometimes succeeded, as in the case of Muller V. Oregon in 1908 which upheld a law limiting the number of hours that women could work in a day but unsuccessful in passing child labor laws and in promoting a federal antilynching law. In the educational front Progressives were very successful. They helped build more schools and improved teacher education and salaries.  They argue that citizens needed to by well-educated to work better are there jobs and to participate in politics.