Progressivism

In US history, a reform movement that began in the late 1890s as a response to problems caused by the rapid economic and social changes following the Civil War. Mainly middle-class and urban-based, progressives secured legislation at local, state, and national levels to improve working conditions, the educational system, tenement housing, the machinery of democratic government, and the provision of social services for the poor.

Although there was not a single, cohesive movement, progressives from grass roots to national organizations were united in their common goals. The Muckrakers, a group of writers who aimed to expose corruption and record frankly the age of industrialism, urban poverty, and conspicuous consumption, were closely associated with this movement.

Rapid industrialization and urbanization in the decades following the Civil War brought new social and economic problems to the fore, such as the exploitation of labour, a growth in slums and urban poverty, and the allying of political groups with business interests. Progressives believed that the concentration of such massive political and industrial powers were a threat to democracy and equal opportunity. In 1912, progressives formed the Bull Moose Party (formally known as the Progressive Party) to support the presidential candidacy of Theodore Roosevelt; the official name and general goals of the party were revived briefly in 1924, when progressives chose Robert M La Follette – one of the founders of the party in 1912 – as their presidential candidate.