Progressivism Historiography: The Progressive Era And The Progressive Movement

Progressivism Historiography At the turn of the nineteenth century, a political and social change emerged to challenge the practices and corruption in the business and political worlds that favored the elite class. This change sparked the Progressive Era and the Progressive Movement. Progressivism main objectives focused on restoring economic and social power to the common man, while fighting for rights for workers, women, and farmers. Progressive reformers looked to promote economic change with reforms, prohibiting labor unions and restricting child labor; social and behavior change with social welfare, socialism, prohibition, muckraking. Reforming elections and local governments, and women’s voting rights brought upon political upheaval

These three written works vary in their perspectives, each giving an eloquent analysis on the subject. Mowry’s analysis implies the educated, and financially stable middle-class provided the most impact compared to other demographics, and wanted to regulate business, while maintaining the social status quo that helped them. Huthmacher instead focused on the poor, working class that was full of immigrants and workers who looked for higher wages, workers’ compensation and a political voice. Firor Scott’s main demographic concentrated on the women voluntary associations and advocates searching for social change and opportunity, that were overlooked in historical discussions. All three of the dissertations provide an insight into different groups at this time, which readers can learn a great deal from; Firor Scott displays a great understanding of the social aspects of the increased role of women, however ignores the economic and political ramifications from the associations' works. Huthmacher does speak about the each ramification and speak about a broader array of classes and groups than the other two sources, yet he fails to stay on task and does not focus on his subjects as much as

They achieved this, according to Mowry, through their political and economic power giving them the edge and the appropriate voice to select and support the ideals that this class strived to attain. This “edge” puts them over the other two subjects of the other articles, as the urban working class lacked the clout that the middle-class possessed and the women’s associations focused primarily on social reforms, not economic and political until the later years of the era. Mowry begins the excerpt with describing who the Progressive selection of the middle-class tended to be. Reformers were seen as younger men ranging from around twenty to forty-five years old; in California the average age of the Progressive leaders was only thirty-eight. Leaders of the change typically followed a similar experience as Joseph Medill Patterson, Mowry’s example of a reformer at this time. Patterson became part of the Illinois State Legislature at age twenty-four, running on a basis focused on the municipal ownership of city utilities in the state. He left the legislature two years later and fell under the appeals of socialism, like many in the movement did, and criticized the economic structure stating that it was “Impossible to reform city and the country under