What Are Some Historians Views On The Progressive Reform Movement

The Progressive Reform Movement

Many Historians have different views on how history events occurred. The Progressive Reform movement is a common event historians talk about. Historians have had conflict about who the progressives were, who they represented, and who the reformers envisioned. A few historians who have given their opinion on the Progressive Reform Movement are George mowry, Joseph Huthmacher, and Robert Wiebe.

Many historians thought that the progressives came from the middle class. George Mowry asserted that the progressives were “self made men” mostly coming from wealthy families. A group of wealthy families helped make up the millionaires reform movement. Although, he thought reforms from the middle class made up the majority.

He also believed that the urban lower class was a past participle to Progressivism in areas with high population. Some of these areas are in New York and Massachusetts. In these areas, Huthmacher thinks the lower class contributes more than the middle class. He says, “They provided an active, numerically strong, and politically necessary force for reform—this class was as important as the urban middle class”(Huthmacher). He believed that the lower class knew conditions of life “on the other side of the tracks”. Huthmacher conveys that liberalism of Americans made the type of political system they were wanting. He asserted that the government got involved because of how the lower class portrayed their rights and voted for legislation. The low class was looking for improvement for working conditions. He provided job security, better wages and working conditions, and gave some benefits of production to consumers. “As a result, we find urban lower-class representatives introducing a large variety of business regulatory measures on the local and state levels during the Progressive Era”(Huthmacher 13). Huthmacher portrayed it was important for each group to be a part of

He describes most people as living in “island communities”. This is where people tied each other to geography because they all knew each other. The ending of these “island communities” were because of migration, industrialization, and urbanization. He conveys that it caused people to want to reform their own new world. He finds that the reformers are divided among voluntary associations such as, cities, states, and the federal government. They exercised this by new members of middle class because they were eager to take control of their largely expanding world. Wiebe argues that all of the reformers shared a love of organization and