American Political History The Progressive Movement, The New Deal, and the Great Society

The years 1895-1920 basically encompass what was known as the Progressive Movement in American political history. Changing socio-economic and political trends were responsible for the Movement. Increasing urbanization, industrialization, and immigration created a demographic shift from rural to urban areas. Along with this shift, urban Americans lost a great deal of influence over national politics and the economy. This gave rise to the Progressive Movement, a movement that Burson (2002) argues was ôtwo different power groups, with differing views of what the role of government should be, fighting it out in the political arenaö (6).

The progressives, as they were known, associated themselves with reform and traditional American values, mainly Protestant, Northern European values. This group was basically in the minority in many cases, but its members were old-stock, upper and upper-middle class Americans with enormous economic clout. The progressives pitted themselves against the Democrats who were labeled the ôMachineö, because of their tendency in the eyes of Progressives to spend money where it would manufacture the most votes. The Progressives billed themselves as ôReformersö, but in reality the reform was a veiled attack on what they believed was increasing control of the government and economy by immigrants and the lower classes. We can see that progres

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imed a national bank holiday. The emergency banking bill was signed into law the same evening, and fourteen other bills became law in less than 100 days. Among these laws were many social programs that Roosevelt felt were needed to reinvigorate the American economy and society. Among these laws were the National Recovery Act, the Agricultural Adjustment Act, the Federal Emergency Relief Act, the Civilian Conservation Corps, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, the Federal Securities Act, and the Public Works Administration (Burson, 2002, 6). Still during his first term, Roosevelt continued to pass wide-reaching legislation such as the creation of the Rural Electrification Administration. Until this time ninety percent of all farms in America were without electricity. While basically neutral in terms of labor disputes, the Roosevelt Administration also passed the National Labor Relations Act that created the National Labor Relations Board. The government was viewed by many as pro-labor and union membership rapidly increased under RooseveltÆs leadership, from 3,632,000 in 1930 to 14,796,000 in 1945 (Burson, 2002, 6). Many of the agencies and law enacted by Roosevelt still have a major impact on American society to this
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Approximate Pages = 5 (250 words per page)

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