Progressive Era

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The Progressive Era was a period of widespread social activism and political reform across the United States that spanned from the 1890s to the 1920s.[1] The main objectives of the Progressive movement were eliminating problems caused by industrialization, urbanization, immigration, and corruption in government.

The movement primarily targeted political machines and their bosses. By taking down these corrupt representatives in office a further means of direct democracy would be established. They also sought regulation of monopolies (Trust Busting) and corporations through antitrust laws. These antitrust laws were seen as a way to promote equal competition for the advantage of legitimate competitors.

Many progressives supported prohibition of alcoholic beverages, ostensibly to destroy the political power of local bosses based in saloons, but others out of a religious motivation.[2] At the same time, women's suffrage was promoted to bring a "purer" female vote into the arena.[3] A third theme was building an Efficiency Movement in every sector that could identify old ways that needed modernizing, and bring to bear scientific, medical and engineering solutions; a key part of the efficiency movement was scientific management, or "Taylorism".

Many activists joined efforts to reform local government, public education, medicine, finance, insurance, industry, railroads, churches, and many other areas. Progressives transformed, professionalized and made "scientific" the social sciences, especially history,[4] economics,[5] and political science.[6] In academic fields the day of the amateur author gave way to the research professor who published in the new scholarly journals and presses. The national political leaders included Republicans Theodore Roosevelt, Robert M. La Follette, Sr., and Charles Evans Hughes , as well as Democrats William Jennings Bryan, Woodrow Wilson and Al Smith. Yet, leaders of the movement also existed far from presidential politics. Jane Addams, Grace Abbott, Edith Abbott and Sophonisba Breckinridge were among the most influential non-governmental Progressive Era reformers.

Initially the movement operated chiefly at local levels; later, it expanded to state and national levels. Progressives drew support from the middle class, and supporters included many lawyers, teachers, physicians, ministers, and business people.[7] Some Progressives strongly supported scientific methods as applied to economics, government, industry, finance, medicine, schooling, theology, education, and even the family. They closely followed advances underway at the time in Western Europe[8] and adopted numerous policies, such as a major transformation of the banking system by creating the Federal Reserve System in 1913.[9] Reformers felt that old-fashioned ways meant waste and inefficiency, and eagerly sought out the "one best system".[10][11]

Government reform[edit]


The middle class philosophy[edit]

A hallmark group of the Progressive Era, the middle class became the driving force behind much of the thought and reform that took place in this time. With an increasing disdain for the upper class and aristocracy of the time, the middle class is characterized by their rejection of the individualistic philosophy of the upper ten. [13] They had a rapidly growing interest in the communication and role between classes, those of which are generally referred to as the upper class, working class, farmers, and themselves, and sought to define these terms. [14] Along these lines, the founder off Hull-House, Jane Addams, coined the term "association" as a counter to Individualism, with association referring to the search for a relationship between the classes. [15] Additionally, the middle class (most notably women) began to move away from prior Victorian era domestic values. Divorce rates increased as women preferred to seek education and freedom from the home. Victorianism was pushed aside in favor of the rise of the Progressives.[16]

Muckraking: exposing corruption[edit]

Magazines experienced a boost in popularity in 1900, with some attaining circulations in the hundreds of thousands of subscribers. In the beginning of the age of Mass media the rapid expansion of national advertising led to the cover price of popular magazines falling sharply to about 10 cents, lessening the financial barrier to consuming them.[17] Another factor contributing to the dramatic upswing in magazine circulation was the prominent coverage of corruption in politics, local government and big business, especially by journalists and writers who were labeled muckrakers. They wrote for popular magazines to expose social and political sins and shortcomings. Relying on their own investigative journalism; muckrakers often worked to expose social ills and corporate and political corruption. Muckraking magazines, notably McClure's, took on corporate monopolies and crooked political machines while raising public awareness of chronic urban poverty, unsafe working conditions, and social issues like child labor.[18] Most of the muckrakers wrote nonfiction, but fictional exposes often had a major impact as well, such as those by Upton Sinclair.[19] In his 1906 novel The Jungle Sinclair exposed the unsanitary and inhumane practices of the meat packing industry. He quipped, "I aimed at the public's heart and by accident I hit it in the stomach," as readers demanded and got the Pure Food and Drug Act .[20]





Across the nation, middle-class women organized on behalf of social reforms during the Progressive Era. Using the language of municipal housekeeping women were able to push such reforms as Prohibition, women's suffrage, child-saving, and public health.



Women's suffrage[edit]

"The Awakening": Suffragists were successful in the West; their torch awakens the women struggling in the East and South in this cartoon by Hy Mayer in Puck Feb. 20, 1915.



The number of rich families climbed exponentially, from 100 or so millionaires in the 1870s, to 4000 in 1892 and 16,000 in 1916. Many subscribed to Andrew Carnegie's credo outlined in The Gospel of Wealth that said they owed a duty to society that called for philanthropic giving to colleges, hospitals, medical research, libraries, museums, religion and social betterment.[31]

In the early 20th century, American philanthropy matured, with the development of very large, highly visible private foundations created by Rockefeller, and Carnegie. The largest foundations fostered modern, efficient, business-oriented operations (as opposed to "charity") designed to better society rather than merely enhance the status of the giver. Close ties were built with the local business community, as in the "community chest" movement.[32] The American Red Cross was reorganized and professionalized.[33] Several major foundations aided the blacks in the South, and were typically advised by Booker T. Washington. By contrast, Europe and Asia had few foundations. This allowed both Carnegie and Rockefeller to operate internationally with powerful effect.[34]


President Theodore Roosevelt
President William Howard Taft
President Woodrow Wilson



Municipal reform[edit]


The pace was set in Detroit Michigan, where Republican mayor Hazen S. Pingree first put together the reform coalition.[39] Many cities set up municipal reference bureaus to study the budgets and administrative structures of local governments.

Progressive mayors took the lead in many key cities,[40] such as Cleveland, Ohio (especially Mayor Tom Johnson); Toledo, Ohio;[41] Jersey City, New Jersey;[42] Los Angeles;[43] Memphis, Tennessee;[44] Louisville, Kentucky;[45] and many other cities, especially in the western states. In Illinois, Governor Frank Lowden undertook a major reorganization of state government.[46] In Wisconsin, the stronghold of Robert La Follette Sr., the Wisconsin Idea used the state university as a major source of ideas and expertise.[47]

Rural reform[edit]

As late as 1920, half the population lived in rural areas. They experienced their own progressive reforms, typically with the explicit goal of upgrading country life.[48] By 1910 most farmers subscribed to a farm newspaper, where editors promoted efficiency as applied to farming.[49] Special efforts were made to reach the rural South and remote areas, such as the mountains of Appalachia and the Ozarks.[50]



Numerous other programs were aimed at rural youth, including 4-H clubs,[56] Boy Scouts and Girl Scouts. County fairs not only gave prizes for the most productive agricultural practices, they also demonstrated those practices to an attentive rural audience. Programs for new mothers included maternity care and training in baby care.[57]


Overseas possessions: the Philippines[edit]







Race relations[edit]

Across the South black communities developed their own Progressive reform projects.[65][66] Typical projects involved upgrading schools, modernizing church operations, expanding business opportunities, fighting for a larger share of state budgets, and engaging in legal action to secure equal rights.[67] Reform projects were especially notable in rural areas, where the great majority of Southern blacks lived.[68]

George Washington Carver (1860-1943) was well known for his research projects, especially involving agriculture. He was also a leader in promoting environmentalism.[69]

Rural blacks were specially involved in environmental issues, in which they developed their own traditions and priorities.[70][71]

Although there were some achievements that improved conditions for African Americans and other non-white minorities, the Progressive Era was the nadir of American race relations. While white Progressives in principle believed in improving conditions for minority groups, there were wide differences in how this was to be achieved. Some, such as Lillian Wald, fought to alleviate the plight of poor African Americans. Many, though, were concerned with enforcing, not eradicating, racial segregation. In particular, the mixing of black and white pleasure-seekers in 'black-and-tan' clubs troubled Progressive reformers.[72] The Progressive ideology espoused by many of the era attempted to correct societal problems created by racial integration following the Civil War by segregating the races and allowing each group to achieve its own potential. That is to say that most Progressives saw racial integration as a problem to be solved, rather than a goal to be achieved.[73][74][75] As white progressives sought to help the white working-class, clean-up politics, and improve the cities, the country instated the system of racial segregation known as Jim Crow.[76]

Legal historian Herbert Hovenkamp argues that while many early progressives inherited the racism of Jim Crow, as they begin to innovate their own ideas, they would embrace behaviorism, cultural relativism and marginalism which stress environmental influences on humans rather than biological inheritance. He states that ultimately progressives "were responsible for bringing scientific racism to an end".[77]

Family and food[edit]

Colorado judge Ben Lindsey a pioneer in the establishment of juvenile court systems.

Progressives believed that the family was the foundation stone of American society, and the government, especially municipal government, must work to enhance the family.[78] Local public assistance programs were reformed to try to keep families together. Inspired by crusading Judge Ben Lindsey of Denver, cities established juvenile courts to deal with disruptive teenagers without sending them to adult prisons.[79][80]

During the progressive era more women took work outside the home. For the working class this work was often as a domestic servant.  Yet working or not women were expected to perform all the cooking and cleaning. This “affected female domestics’ experiences of their homes, workplaces, and possessions, While the male household members, comforted by the smells of home cooking, fresh laundry, and soaped floors, would have seen home as a refuge from work, women would have associated these same smells with the labor that they expended to maintain order.”[81] With increased in technology some of this work became easier. The “introduction of gas, indoor plumbing, electricity and garbage pickup had a significant impact on the homes and the women who were responsible form maintaining them.”[82] With the introduction of new methods of heating and lighting the home allowed for use of space once used for storage to become living spaces.[82]  Women were targeted by advertisements for many different products once produced at home. These products were anything from mayonnaise, soda, or canned vegetables.[83]




Some Progressives sponsored eugenics as a solution to excessively large or underperforming families, hoping that birth control would enable parents to focus their resources on fewer, better children.[86] Progressive leaders like Herbert Croly and Walter Lippmann indicated their classically liberal concern over the danger posed to the individual by the practice of Eugenics.[87] The Catholics strongly opposed birth control proposals such as eugenics.[88]

Constitutional change[edit]




Agitation for prohibition began during the Second Great Awakening in the 1840s when crusades against drinking originated from evangelical Protestants.[92] Evangelicals precipitated the second wave of prohibition legislation during the 1880s, which had as its aim local and state prohibition. During the 1880s, referendums were held at the state level to enact prohibition amendments. Two important groups were formed during this period. The Woman's Christian Temperance Union (WCTU) was formed in 1874.[93] The Anti-Saloon League which began in Ohio was formed in 1893, uniting activists from different religious groups. [94] The league, rooted in Protestant churches, envisioned nationwide prohibition. Rather than condemn all drinking, the group focused attention on the saloon which was considered the ultimate symbol of public vice. The league also concentrated on campaigns for the right of individual communities to choose whether to close their saloons.[95] In 1907, Georgia and Alabama were the first states to go dry followed by Oklahoma, Mississippi, North Carolina, and Tennessee in the following years. In 1913, Congress passed the Webb-Kenyon Act, which forbade the transport of liquor into dry states.

By 1917, two thirds of the states had some form of prohibition laws and roughly three quarters of the population lived in dry areas. In 1913, the Anti-Saloon League first publicly appealed for a prohibition amendment. They preferred a constitutional amendment over a federal statute because although harder to achieve, they felt it would be harder to change. As the United States entered World War I, the Conscription Act banned the sale of liquor near military bases.[96] In August 1917, the Lever Food and Fuel Control Act banned production of distilled spirits for the duration of the war. The War Prohibition Act, November, 1918, forbade the manufacture and sale of intoxicating beverages (more than 2.75% alcohol content) until the end of demobilization.




The Progressives sought to reform and modernize schools at the local level. The era was notable for a dramatic expansion in the number of schools and students attending them, especially in the fast-growing metropolitan cities. By 1940, 50% of young adults had earned a high school diploma. The result was the rapid growth of the educated middle class, who typically were the grass roots supporters of Progressive measures.[98] During the Progressive Era, many states began passing compulsory schooling laws.[99] An emphasis on hygiene and health was made in education, with physical and health education becoming more important and widespread.[100]

Women's Education in Home Economics[edit]

A new field of study, the art and science of homemaking, emerged in the Progressive Era in an effort to feminize women’s education in the United States. Alternatively called home arts, or home economics, the major curriculum reform in women’s education was influenced by the publication of Treatise on Domestic Economy, written by Catherine Beecher in 1843. Advocates of home economics argued that homemaking, as a profession, required education and training for the development of an efficient and systematic domestic practice. The curriculum aimed to cover a variety of topics, including teaching standardized way of gardening, child-rearing, cooking, cleaning, performing household maintenance, and doctoring. Such scientific management applied to the domestic sphere was presented as a solution to the dilemma middle class women faced in terms of searching for meaning and fulfillment in their role of housekeeping. The feminist perspective, by pushing for this type of education, intended to explain that women had separate but equally important responsibilities in life with men that required proper training.[101]

Children and education[edit]


Medicine and law[edit]

The "Flexner Report" of 1910, sponsored by the Carnegie Foundation, professionalized American medicine by discarding the scores of local small medical schools and focusing national funds, resources, and prestige on larger, professionalized medical schools associated with universities.[103][104] Prominent leaders included the Mayo Brothers whose Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota, became world-famous for innovative surgery.[105]


Social sciences[edit]

Progressive scholars, based at the emerging research universities such as Harvard, Columbia, Johns Hopkins, Chicago, Michigan, Wisconsin and California, worked to modernize their disciplines. The heyday of the amateur expert gave way to the research professor who published in the new scholarly journals and presses. Their explicit goal was to professionalize and make "scientific" the social sciences, especially history,[4] economics,[5] and political science.[6] Professionalization meant creating new career tracks in the universities, with hiring and promotion dependent on meeting international models of scholarship.

Economic policy[edit]

President Wilson uses tariff, currency, and anti-trust laws to prime the pump and get the economy working.






Labor unions[edit]


By the turn of the century, more and more small businesses were getting fed up with the way that they were treated compared to the bigger businesses. It seemed that the "Upper Ten" were turning a blind-eye to the smaller businesses, cutting corners where ever they could to make more profit. The big businesses would soon find out that the smaller businesses were starting to gain ground over them, so they became unsettled as described; "Constant pressure from the public, labor organizations, small business interests, and federal and state governments forced the corporate giants to engage in a balancing act."[113] Now that all of these new regulations and standards were being enacted, the big business would now have to stoop to everyones level, including the small businesses. The big businesses would soon find out that in order to succeed they would have to band together with the smaller businesses to be successful, kind of a "Yin and Yang" effect.


The influx of immigration grew steadily after 1896, with most new arrivals being unskilled workers from eastern and southern Europe. These immigrants were able to find work in the steel mills, slaughterhouses, and construction crews of the emergent mill towns and industrial cities of the late 19th century. The outbreak of World War I in 1914 halted most transcontinental immigration, only after 1919 did the flow of immigrants resume. Starting in the 1880s, the labor unions aggressively promoted restrictions on immigration, especially restrictions on Chinese, Japanese and Korean immigrants.[114] In combination with the racist attitudes of the time, there was a fear that large numbers of unskilled, low-paid workers would defeat the union's efforts to raise wages through collective bargaining.[115] In addition, rural Protestants distrusted the urban Catholics and Jews who comprised most of the immigrants after 1890, and on those grounds opposed immigration.[116] On the other hand, the rapid growth of the industry called for a greater and expanding labour pool that could not be met by natural birth rates. As a result, many large corporations were opposed to immigration restrictions. By the early 1920s a consensus had been reached that the total influx of immigration had to be restricted, and a series of laws in the 1920s accomplished that purpose.[117] A handful of eugenics advocates were also involved in immigration restriction for their own pseudo-scientific reasons.[118] Immigration restriction continued to be a national policy until after World War II.

During World War I, the Progressives strongly promoted Americanization programs, designed to modernize the recent immigrants and turn them into model American citizens, while diminishing loyalties to the old country.[119] These programs often operated through the public school system, which expanded dramatically.[120]

Foreign Policy[edit]

Foreign policy in the progressive era was often marked by a hint of moral supremacy, with assessments of Woodrow Wilson and William Jennings Bryan believing themselves to be 'Missionaries of Democracy' being accurate, with them believing that they were “Inspired by the confidence that they knew better how to promote the peace and well-being of other countries than did the leaders of those countries themselves.” Similar ideas and language had already been used previously in the Monroe Doctrine, wherein Roosevelt claimed that the United States could serve as the police of the world, using its power to end unrest and wrongdoing on the western hemisphere. Using this moralistic approach, Roosevelt argued for intervention with Cuba to help it to become a “just and stable civilization”, by way of the Platt amendment. Wilson used a similar moralistic tone when dealing with Mexico. In 1913, while revolutionaries took control of the government, Wilson judged them to be immoral, and refused to acknowledge the in-place government on that reason alone. [121]


Although the Progressive Era was characterized by public support for World War I under Woodrow Wilson, there was also a substantial opposition to World War I.


In the 1940s typically historians saw the Progressive Era as a prelude to the New Deal and dated it from 1901 (when Roosevelt became president) to the start of World War I in 1914 or 1917.[122] Historians have moved back in time emphasizing the Progressive reformers at the municipal[123] and state[124] levels in the 1890s.

End of the Era[edit]

Much less settled is the question of when the era ended. Some historians who emphasize civil liberties decry their suppression during World War I and do not consider the war as rooted in Progressive policy.[125] A strong anti-war movement headed by noted Progressives including Jane Addams, was suppressed after Wilson's 1916 re-election, a victory largely enabled by his campaign slogan, "He kept us out of the war." [126] The slogan was no longer accurate by April 6 of the following year, when Wilson surprised much of the Progressive base that twice elected him and asked a joint session of Congress to declare war on Germany. The Senate voted 82–6 in favor; the House agreed, 373–50. Some historians see the so-called "war to end all wars" as a globalized expression of the American Progressive movement, with Wilson's support for a League of Nations as its climax.[127]

The politics of the 1920s was unfriendly toward the labor unions and liberal crusaders against business, so many if not most historians who emphasize those themes write off the decade. Urban cosmopolitan scholars recoiled at the moralism of prohibition, the intolerance of the nativists and the KKK, and on those grounds denounced the era. Richard Hofstadter, for example, in 1955 wrote that prohibition, "was a pseudo-reform, a pinched, parochial substitute for reform" that "was carried about America by the rural-evangelical virus".[128] However, as Arthur S. Link emphasized, the Progressives did not simply roll over and play dead.[129] Link's argument for continuity through the twenties stimulated a historiography that found Progressivism to be a potent force. Palmer, pointing to leaders like George Norris, says, "It is worth noting that progressivism, whilst temporarily losing the political initiative, remained popular in many western states and made its presence felt in Washington during both the Harding and Coolidge presidencies."[130] Gerster and Cords argue that, "Since progressivism was a 'spirit' or an 'enthusiasm' rather than an easily definable force with common goals, it seems more accurate to argue that it produced a climate for reform which lasted well into the 1920s, if not beyond."[131] Some social historians have posited that the KKK may in fact fit into the Progressive agenda, if Klansmen are portrayed as "ordinary white Protestants" primarily interested in purification of the system, which had long been a core Progressive goal.[132] This however ignores the violence and racism central to Klan ideology and activities, that had nothing to do with improving society, so much as enforcing racial hierarchies.

While some Progressive leaders became reactionaries, that usually happened in the 1930s, not in the 1920s, as exemplified by William Randolph Hearst,[133] Herbert Hoover, Al Smith and Henry Ford.[134][135]

First Red Scare[edit]

Following the period rapid social change saw a worker's uprising turn to a full scale revolution in Russia in 1917 taken over by Bolsheviks along anarchist bombings of 1919 by foreigners encroached a large fear over many citizens of a possible Bolshevism revolt to overthrow values which the United States holds up to mainly capitalism. It saw persecutions of many ideals of the progressive era seeing raids, arrests, and persecutions taken place. Such as the period saw supporters such as worker unions, socialist, and others faced similar prosecutions. Along these convicted were foreigners, African Americans, Jews, Catholics, etc. The US government was also affected both legally and internally as of January 1920 saw 6,000 arrests of persecutions along changes in government policies where the government in acted censorship in the media and suppressing opinion on the matter going as far to use physical assaults or legal arrests having certain civil liberties stripped.[136]

Business progressivism in 1920s[edit]

What historians have identified as "business progressivism", with its emphasis on efficiency and typified by Henry Ford and Herbert Hoover[137] reached an apogee in the 1920s. Wik, for example, argues that Ford's "views on technology and the mechanization of rural America were generally enlightened, progressive, and often far ahead of his times."[138]

Tindall stresses the continuing importance of the Progressive movement in the South in the 1920s involving increased democracy, efficient government, corporate regulation, social justice, and governmental public service.[139][140] William Link finds political Progressivism dominant in most of the South in the 1920s.[141] Likewise it was influential in the Midwest.[142]

Historians of women and of youth emphasize the strength of the Progressive impulse in the 1920s.[143] Women consolidated their gains after the success of the suffrage movement, and moved into causes such as world peace,[144] good government, maternal care (the Sheppard–Towner Act of 1921),[145] and local support for education and public health.[146] The work was not nearly as dramatic as the suffrage crusade, but women voted[147] and operated quietly and effectively. Paul Fass, speaking of youth, says "Progressivism as an angle of vision, as an optimistic approach to social problems, was very much alive."[148] International influences that sparked many reform ideas likewise continued into the 1920s, as American ideas of modernity began to influence Europe.[149]

By 1930 a block of progressive Republicans in the Senate who were urging Hoover to take more vigorous action to fight the depression. There were about a dozen members of this group including William Borah of Idaho, George W. Norris of Nebraska, Robert M. La Follette Jr., of Wisconsin, Gerald Nye of North Dakota, Hiram Johnson of California and Bronson M. Cutting of New Mexico. While these western Republicans could stir up issues, they could rarely forge a majority, since they were too individualistic and did not form a unified caucus.[150] Hoover himself had sharply moved to the right, and paid little attention to their liberal ideas.[151] By 1932 this group was moving toward support for Roosevelt's New Deal. They remain staunch isolationists deeply opposed to any involvement in Europe. Outside the Senate, however, a strong majority of the surviving Progressives from the 1910s had become conservative opponents of New Deal economic planning.[152]

Notable progressive leaders[edit]

See also[edit]


  2. ^ James H. Timberlake, Prohibition and the progressive movement, 1900–1920 (1970) pp 1–7.
  7. ^ George Mowry, The California Progressives (1963) p 91.
  12. ^ David E. Kyvig, Explicit and authentic acts: amending the U.S. Constitution, 1776–1995 (Kansas UP, 1996) pp. 208–14;Hedwig Richter: TRANSNATIONAL REFORM AND DEMOCRACY: ELECTION REFORMS IN NEW YORK CITY AND BERLIN AROUND 1900, in: Journal of the Gilded Age and Progressive Era 15 (2016), 149-175 URL:
  13. ^ McGerr, Michael (2003). A Fierce Discontent. New York: Oxford University Press. p. 65. 
  14. ^ Wiebe, Robert H (1967). The Search For Order: 1877-1920. New York: Hill and Wang. p. 111. 
  15. ^ McGerr, Michael (2003). A Fierce Discontent. New York: Oxford University Press. p. 66. 
  16. ^ McGerr, Michael (2003). A Fierce Discontent. New York: Oxford University Press. pp. 40–74. 
  20. ^ Arlene F. Kantor, "Upton Sinclair and the Pure Food and Drugs Act of 1906.: 'I aimed at the public's heart and by accident I hit it in the stomach'." American Journal of Public Health 66.12 (1976): 1202-1205.
  22. ^ Harry H. Stein, "American Muckrakers and Muckraking: The 50-Year Scholarship," Journalism Quarterly, (1979) 56#1 pp. 9–17
  23. ^ John D. Buenker, and Robert M. Crunden. Progressivism (1986); Maureen Flanagan, America Reformed: Progressives and Progressivisms, 1890–1920s (2007)
  28. ^ Eleanor Flexner, Century of Struggle (1959), pp. 208–17.
  34. ^ Zunz, p. 42
  40. ^ Kenneth Finegold, "Traditional Reform, Municipal Populism, and Progressivism," Urban Affairs Review, (1995) 31#1 pp 20-42
  41. ^ Arthur E. DeMatteo, "The Progressive As Elitist: 'Golden Rule' Jones And The Toledo Charter Reform Campaign of 1901," Northwest Ohio Quarterly, (1997) 69#1 pp 8–30
  47. ^ "Progressivism and the Wisconsin Idea". Wisconsin Historical Society. 2008. 
  51. ^ Harold U. Faulkner, The Decline of Laissez Faire, 1897–1917 (1951) pp. 233–36.
  52. ^ Charles Lee Dearing, American highway policy (1942).
  58. ^ Danbom 1979, p. 473.
  61. ^ MILLER, STUART CREIGHTON (1982). Benevolent Assimilation: The American Conquest of the Philippines, 1899-1903. Yale University Press. ISBN 9780300030815. 
  68. ^ Debra Reid, "Rural African Americans and Progressive Reform," Agricultural History (2000) 74#2 pp. 322–41 on Texas.
  76. ^ Woodward, C. Vann (1955). The Strange Career of Jim Crow. 
  81. ^ Mark., P. Leone, (2017). Atlantic Crossings in the Wake of Frederick Douglass : Archaeology, Literature, and Spatial Culture. Jenkins, Lee. Boston: BRILL. pp. 93–4. ISBN 9789004343481. OCLC 979148778. 
  82. ^ a b Mark., P. Leone, (2017). Atlantic Crossings in the Wake of Frederick Douglass : Archaeology, Literature, and Spatial Culture. Jenkins, Lee. Boston: BRILL. p. 96. ISBN 9789004343481. OCLC 979148778. 
  83. ^ Mark., P. Leone, (2017). Atlantic Crossings in the Wake of Frederick Douglass : Archaeology, Literature, and Spatial Culture. Jenkins, Lee. Boston: BRILL. pp. 93–100. ISBN 9789004343481. OCLC 979148778. 
  86. ^ Leonard, Thomas C. (2005) Retrospectives: Eugenics and Economics in the Progressive Era Journal of Economic Perspectives, 19(4): 207–24
  95. ^ Michael., McGerr, (2003). A fierce discontent. New York: Oxford University Press. pp. 88–89. 
  97. ^ a b David E. Kyvig,Repealing National Prohibition (2000)
  98. ^ David B. Tyack, The One Best System: A History of American Urban Education (Harvard University Press, 1974)
  99. ^ "State Compulsory School Attendance Laws". 1999-10-01. Retrieved 2012-07-01. 
  100. ^ Engs, Ruth C. (2003). The progressive era's health reform movement: a historical dictionary. Westport, CT: Praeger Publishers. pp. 20–22. ISBN 0-275-97932-6. 
  102. ^ McGerr, Michael (2003). A Fierce Discontent: The Rise And Fall Of The Progressive Movement In America, 1870-1920. New York: New York:Free Press. pp. 107–110. 
  111. ^ Faith Jaycox (2005). The Progressive Era: Eyewitness History. Infobase. p. 403. ISBN 9780816051595. 
  113. ^ Saros, Daniel (2009). Labor, Industry, and Regulation during the Progressive Era. 270 Madison Ave, New York, NY 10016: Routledge. p. 3. 
  117. ^ Claudia Golden, "The Political Economy of Immigration Restriction in the United States, 1890 to 1921," in Goldin, The regulated economy (1994) ch 7
  121. ^ 1948-, Flanagan, Maureen A., (2007). America reformed : Progressives and progressivisms, 1890s-1920s. New York: Oxford University Press. ISBN 0195172191. OCLC 63179060. 
  125. ^ Paul L. Murphy, World War I and the Origin of Civil Liberties in the United States (1979)
  126. ^ Jane Addams, Bread and Peace in Time of War (1922)
  128. ^ Richard Hofstadter, The Age of Reform (1955) p. 287
  136. ^ Page., Smith, (1985). America enters the world : a people's history of the Progressive Era and World War I. New York: McGraw-Hill. ISBN 0070585733. OCLC 10925102. 
  137. ^ Barry C. Edwards, "Putting Hoover on the Map: Was the 31st President a Progressive. Congress & the Presidency 41#1 (2014) pp 49-83 online
  150. ^ Arthur M. Schlesinger (1959). The Crisis of the Old Order: 1919-1933. p. 242. 
  151. ^ Edwards, "Putting Hoover on the Map: Was the 31st President a Progressive p 60.

Further reading[edit]


  • Lears, T. J. Jackson. Rebirth of a Nation: The Remaking of Modern America, 1877-1920 (2009) excerpt and text search
  • Painter, Nell Irvin. Standing at Armageddon: The United States, 1877-1919 (1987) excerpt and text search
  • Thelen, David P. "Social Tensions and the Origins of Progressivism," Journal of American History 56 (1969), 323–41 online at JSTOR
  • Young, Jeremy C. The Age of Charisma: Leaders, Followers, and Emotions in American Society, 1870-1940 (2017) excerpt and text search

Presidents and politics[edit]

  • Brands, H.W. Theodore Roosevelt (2001).
  • Edwards, Barry C. "Putting Hoover on the Map: Was the 31st President a Progressive. (1975). Congress & the Presidency 41#1 (2014) pp 49-83 online
  • Kolko, Gabriel (1963). The Triumph of Conservatism: A Reinterpretation of American History, 1900-1916. New York, NY: The Free Press. 
  • Pestritto, R.J. "Woodrow Wilson and the Roots of Modern Liberalism." (2005).


  • Huthmacher, J. Joseph. "Urban Liberalism and the Age of Reform" Mississippi Valley Historical Review 49 (1962): 231–41, in JSTOR; emphasized urban, ethnic, working class support for reform

Primary sources and year books[edit]