Progressive Movement (Cristina Felip)

 The Progressive Movement or Progressive Era in the United States was a period of reform.

 It lasted from the 1890s to the 1920s.
 The movement was started in the decades after the American Civil War (1861–65) .

 In response to the changes brought on by industrialization and an economic depression.

 This movement was a broad campaign to reform:

 Social life.
 Politics
 Economic.

 The First Reform Era, occurred in the years before the Civil War and included efforts of social activists to reform working conditions.


 The second reform era lasted until the American entry into World War I with he struggle for women's rights.


Women take the control

 Susan B. Anthony was born February 15, 1820 in Adams, Massachusetts.

 She was brought up in a Quaker family with long activist tradition.


Women right’s movement

 After teaching for fifteen years, she became active in temperance.

 This experience, and her acquaintance with Elizabeth Cady Stanton, led her to join the women's rights movement in 1852.

 Soon after she dedicated her life to woman suffrage.

 She campaigned for the abolition of slavery, women's rights to their own property and earnings, and women's labour organizations.

In 1900, she persuaded the University of Rochester to admit women.




Political Leaders

 Theodore Roosevelt: (1858–1919 )

 The youngest President in the Nation's history.

 Leader of the Republican Party and of the Progressive Party

 He brought new excitement and power to the Presidency.

 He took the view that the President should take whatever action necessary for the public good
 Roosevelt ensured the construction of the Panama Canal.

 He won the Nobel Peace Prize for mediating the Russo-Japanese War .

 His most effective achievements were in conservation

 Thomas Woodrow Wilson: (December 28, 1856 – February 3, 1924).

 A leading intellectual of the Progressive Movement, he was elected President as a Democrat in 1912.

 Re-elected in 1916, his second term centred on World War I.

 He tried to maintain U.S. neutrally but in April 1917 asked Congress to declare war on the Central Powers.

 He focused on diplomacy and financial considerations.
 In 1917, raised billions in war funding through Liberty Bonds.
 Enacted the first federal drug prohibition
 Promoted labour union growth.

 For his efforts to form the League, he was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1919.

Progressive Movement

 Specific goals included:

 Suffrage: Many women were demanding suffrage, or the right to vote.


 Prohibition: Alcohol was a social evil that caused the breakdown of marriages, violence and abuse.

 Children:

 This movement outlaw child labour.

 Workers: Young and old were simply out on the street if they were injured on the job.

 Political Reform: In many states, progressive reformers wanted to give more power to the people by allowing citizen groups to initiate new laws themselves.

 Anti-Monopoly Reforms: The U.S. was a huge marketplace with lots of potential consumers, and businesses began to monopolize that market.

 Significant changes in the U.S. constitution:

 1.The income tax with the Sixteenth Amendment.
 2. Direct election of Senators with the Seventeenth Amendment.
 2.Prohibition with the Eighteenth Amendment
 3.Women's suffrage through to the Nineteenth Amendment

The Muckrakers

 They were journalists who exposed waste, corruption, and scandal in the highly influential new medium of national magazines.

McClure’s Magazine

An American literary and political magazine.

Progressive’s characteristics

 They shared a common belief in:

 The ability of science
 Technology
 Disinterested expertise to identify all problems and come up with the one best solution.

Criticism of Progressive Movement

The changes during this era affected most strongly the areas of birthing, family, schooling, law, journalism, and food production and distribution.