Progressive Movement in American History
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The heyday of the Progressive movement in American history, the years 1890 to 1920, coincides with one of the world's most turbulent and fast-moving eras. It was the fin-de-siècle: 19th Century replaced by 20th; Victoria replaced by Edward; a frontier "closed" and a "world war" first fought. It was an era of innovation, as the telephone, automobile, airplane, motion picture, and radio -- not to mention the Singer home sewing machine -- were introduced to ever-widening public use. It was, in short, a time when anyone with a perspective on the surrounding world could feel, with justification, that it was changing faster than one could comprehend -- or keep up with. The word "Progressive" carries with it the full baggage of implications suggestive of this era. It was also America's "Age of Reform." This is not to say that there were no great "reform" eras before or after -- certainly New Dealers in '32 and Gingrich Republicans in '94 would dispute that -- but the years 1890 through 1920 were nonetheless marked by a long-term commitment to some sort of essential makeover to the American society, its economy, and U.S. political institutions. The Progressive movement was a central player in this era's activities in and around the various reform issues that sprang up as constant and persistent as an annual crop of dandelions. The metaphor is deliberate -- "annual crop of dandelions" -- for the issues raised by the Progressive movement did have their origins in land-based
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han the mass myth:
From colonial days there had always been before the eyes of the yeoman farmer in the settled areas alluring models of commercial success in agriculture: the tobacco, rice, and indigo planters of the South, the grain, meat, and cattle exporters of the middle colonies (38).
By the Progressive era, outside of certain isolated areas, the agricultural sector was almost entirely commercial-oriented (Hofstadter 38).
Commercial interest is, quid pro quo, economic interest, and here Hofstadter finds common ground with Kolko in describing the origins of farmers' Progressivism:
(They) did not, on the whole, regard politics as a necessary evil, but as an important part of their larger position in society. Because of their positive theory of the state ... The needs of the economy were such, of course, as to demand federal as opposed to random state economic regulation (Kolko 5 & 6).
Now it must be admitted that Kolko's "they" were businessmen -- but so were America's farmers in the 1890s. There was a general movement in the business community toward Progressivism, Kolko argues, because of that movement's emphasis upon variations on the themes of centralization, regulation, and stabilization.
One must remember tha
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Some common words found in the essay are:
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Approximate Word count = 4663
Approximate Pages = 19 (250 words per page)
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