The Progressive Movement In The 1920's

“The Progressive Era was a period of widespread social activism and political reform across the United States, from the 1890s to the 1920s”(www.dictionary.com). Mowry, Huthmacher, and Gilmore talk about the social origins of the progressive reform movement in their articles. In these articles it talks about the progressives, how they were defined differently, and what social classes/occupations/ethnic groups did they represent. George Mowry talks about the objectives of the progressive movement in “Progressivism: Middle-Class Disillusionment”. Majority of the reformers came from the “middle class”. There families were economically secure and most of them had a college education in a day. Many people were becoming lawyers, manufacturers, and studying many other occupations such as medicine, banking, and real estate. Mowry states, “Of the sixty

Fifty percent of reformers came from these three institutions Harvard, Princeton, Yale. Many of the reformers came with British origins however, by the 1900s most of them lived in Northern cities. There were always two sides to society “the very rich” and “the very poor” and you had to decide what you fit into best. William Kent publicly stated, “I could not believe in the class struggle because every great reform of the past had been wrought by men who were not “selfishly interested”(264). This quote is important because many people judged you by looking at what class you were in. Even if you were middle class people might see you as poor and less as a person. The point is you should not be any more important if you are on the upper or lower class.Everyone should be looked at the same and be treated fair. In “Urban Liberalism and the Age of Reform” by Joseph Huthmacher, he talks about the social movements. Hid article is similar to Mowry’s because he talks about how the Progressive Era cannot be understood "exclusively" as a manifestation of the middle-class. He does not point out the actions