How Did The Progressive Era Contribute To The Evolution Of American Society

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Over time, the United States of America has experienced many national transformations and hardships that have led to the cultivation of a more modern society. From the mid nineteenth century through the early twentieth, the United States of America underwent a period of modern development and expansion that was entirely unprecedented. This pattern of growth and change has drastically altered the cultural landscape of this country, and even though a hundred years is not an extremely large portion of America’s timeline, within this century the United States of America came to dominate its modern hemisphere in a way that can still be observed to this day. The period 1830 through 1920 within the United States of America was a period of tremendous …show more content…

Heavily influenced by increasing industrial production and the continued expansion of the consumer marketplace, this era was a “period of explosive economic growth” and population explosion.4 The majority of American society voted with the political mindset than the best government would always be the best government, and this would not change until news of modern government corruption became commonplace. The very act of informing the public about the government and their actions was a very modern concept, as the Founding Fathers themselves were against the idea of allowing “ordinary citizens” the privilege of becoming involved with political affairs, lest there be corruption or nepotism of any sort. Conversely, Progressives believed that it was the constitutional right of the public as citizens of the United States of America to be informed of anything and everything regarding politics and policies that might affect them in any way. The following is a passage from Give Me Liberty! Brief that accurately and eloquently describes the overarching goal that Progressives of the era sought to …show more content…

Some Progressives proposed to return to a competitive marketplace populated by small producers. Others accepted the permanence of the large corporations and looked to the government to reverse the growing concentration of wealth and to ensure social justice. Still others would relocate freedom from the economic and political worlds to a private realm of personal fulfillment and unimpeded self-expressive. But nearly all Progressives agreed that freedom must be infused with new meaning to deal with the economic and social conditions of the early twentieth