Progressive Era Dbq

A great nation consists of its political systems, its freedom, its liberty, and its ability to be led towards economic success. American history is filled with the necessary changes needed to become the ideal of a great nation. Between the Civil War and the Great Depression, America has been able to present a great extent of change through the Freedmen’s Bureau, The Monroe Doctrine, The Johnson-Reed Act, and The National Industrial Recovery Act. These political documents represent the progress America has had toward a more democratic society. Leaders such as Abraham Lincoln, Jane Addams, Theodore Roosevelt, and Franklin D. Roosevelt were able to help shape this progress with their ideas that focused on the betterment of the nation.

A democratic

Individuals such as Jane Addams and Theodore Roosevelt influenced the changes corresponding to a movement called The Progressive Era, which focused on the elimination of a corrupt government as its attempt to become a democracy. Jane Adams was an individual whom pursued change and a like many other Victorians’ left home to join the quest that would eventually led her to find new hope and adjustment. Through her search for change, Jane Adams came across the ideological transformation that drove most middle-class people to want change not only in their world but in the world around them. This movement caused domesticity to fall and was the rise of an era were women increased their opportunities for education. The late nineteenth century was filled with the uplift of women’s enrollment in universities which influenced the increase of women’s independence. With an education, women were now experiencing a different life style. This new life style “included new rights and opportunities” that helped many women “own property, hold paying jobs, and vote for their own officers” (McGerr 49). Just as African Americans, women came across different obstacles when fighting for independence. Now that they were free, women too wanted the male conduct to be more acceptable toward their democratic

The National Industrial Recovery Act is another example of intervention toward the control of society. This act was passed by Franklin D. Roosevelt, in order to regulate the industries as “it established a 30 to 40 cents an hour pay… and the abolition of child labor” (Brinkley 38). However, by 1934, the failure of the National Recovery Act was evident and unlike the AAA, Roosevelt did not made an effort to revive it. Although the NRA and AAA were a failure, the ideas Roosevelt was able to obtain from both of these acts led him to become more democratic as he “became interested in challenging the power of large industrial monopolies” (Brinkley 41). His new focus toward monopolies illustrates the urge toward