Progressive Era and Gilded Age Essay

In Walter Nugent’s book Progressivism: A Very Short Introduction, he claims Progressivism emerged as a response to the Gilded Age, an unfortunate era that left the average working Americans poor while a new class of wealthier people started to rise. Nugent explains to us the breakdown of Progressivism and what occurred when it struck our nation. Progressivism began to come together in the end of the 1800s due to the ills of American Society that had developed during the great spurt of industrial growth. It shaped and progressed from 1900 to 1917 and finally started to disappear from 1917 to the early 1920s. Nugent claims Progressivism emerged as a response to the Gilded Age, an unfortunate era that left the average working Americans poor while a new class of wealthier people started to rise. For once, Americans sensed change in their society. Some change for the good but most of it for the worse. Nugent talks about how cities began growing up faster than the blink of an eye. The railroad companies started to turn into monopolies. Unfortunately, more problems started to rise in America other than this one. The rich became wealthier and the poor became poorer. The nation had also previously faced a serious recession from 1893-1896, and recovery did not actually really begin until 1897. Other factors that occurred during the progressive era: prostitution and alcohol abuse, the great railroad strike of 1877, and the Homestead Strike. The main progressive leaders, such as, Theodore Roosevelt, William Jennings Bryan, and Woodrow Wilson stepped in to make a difference. Theodore Roosevelt claimed he backed up the middle class and showed no mercy toward monopolies. Theodore Roosevelt and Woodrow Wilson accomplished many things such as: the 16th amendment which modified the structure of taxation, demolishing the Sherman Anti-Trust Act to dissolve trust so the railroads would not create a complete monopoly in the North West part of the country, the 18th amendment which banned the manufacture, sale, and transportation of alcohol, and the passing of the Woman’s Suffrage Act in 1920 which allowed women to have larger roles in issues with our society. However, according to Nugent, reformers such as Jane Addams, W. E. B DuBois, and Booker T. Washington also had a huge impact on the Progressive Era as well. Addams founded settlement houses like the famous Hull House, where immigrants and the poor resided. The Hull- House also showed change could come without overthrowing the political and economic system. DuBois, head of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), helped to reduce discrimination. Nugent later describes what occurred in America when Progressivism slowly started to die out. It considered to have ended with the outbreak of the First World War. The war left over 53,000 killed in combat while 63,000 died from other causes. A Flu pandemic also struck which killed roughly 600,000 Americans. In conclusion the progressive era had rough times. Although not everything turned out completely successful, it did put America in the position it needed to be in in order to achieve success.