Progressive Reform and Howe Essay -- essays research papers

Lourdes Vazquez Section 1I Question 3  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Changing America People face change in many ways. Some embrace it, some run from it, and some don’t even notice it. Change surrounds us every moment of every day; change is constant. Change is one of the words the words that can be used to describe America as it moved into the twentieth century; change was everywhere as the nineteenth century gave way to the roaring twentieth. This change however was radical as the people off this time witnessed a world which they had once known and cherished vanish before their eyes only to be replaced by big business, corrupt politics, and horrid working conditions. In response to all this many citizens decided that they too would make changes. These people were known as progressives and though they differed in what they felt needed to be done to address all the change that surrounded them, they were still a set of people who embraced the idea of not simply making changes, but making them for the better of all versus a select few. As with any story, that of the progressive era, has not one, nor two, nor even three sides but many. Despite the many views manifested by the progressives, the movement itself was one that greatly affected American life and is thus a vital and utile historical concept. The word progress suggests moving forward or making improvements, thus it can be said that the progressive movement was just that, an effort to move onward; onward to reform and away from the detrimental effects that industrialization had brought upon the nation. Political machines were running cities, big business was controlling everything, and the working conditions people had to endure to scratch out a living were atrocious. America was filled with ideas and concepts its people had never seen before. Small businesses were crushed by big ones as there existed no legislation to regulate them. The nation had always maintained a laissez-faire philosophy when dealing with the business and was having difficulty in doing otherwise. Likewise businesses were not cooperative as they did not see any reason for changing the hands-off policy America had been founded on. America had never seen industrialized labor before either. Everything had always been done on the farm, for a couple of peop le, not a couple hundred. The government in general had always had very hands off... ...tself. In all however, it was these many changes, as different and as spread out as they were, that define an era filled with change, changing lifestyle, changing family structure, a changing workplace, changing businesses, and changing cities. People had no choice but to confront these changes with changes of their own. Was there a typical type of person who confronted this change? No it takes all kinds and the progressive era was no exception. In fact, what made the progressive era so effective was the myriad of people who define it. The many ideas and concepts possessed by reformers of the country came together to meet political corruption, big business, and labor disputes head on.. All these issues were handled in different ways, with different philosophies, but they were handled nonetheless. How can the progressive era not be seen as a historical concept? A concept is not a strict or rigid idea, it is just that, a concept, a loose idea under which many similar ones may fall, for when it was all said and done, reforms were made, and more changes took place, until America’s people had somehow responded to all the changes that have helped shaped it into the nation it is today.