Progress, Progressives, Progressivism

The definition of progress, as defined by Dictionary.com is "growth and development", "continuous improvement" and "advancement in general". It can be applied in various forms to anything that can improve like the Progressive Era. The Progressive Era. This era in the United States was between "1890's to 1920's". Based on The Eleanor Roosevelt papers project, the era was deemed the Progressive Era because it was the broadest term that could be applied to the mass reform of social and economical processes going on. It also goes on the describe what was going on during this time. Progressivism was the broad term applied to the way people went about trying to fix the social and economical problems that abounded in the United States. People had begun to reject Social Darwinism as an excuse for problems such as poverty. racism, and class warfare. Much of these goals were achieved when Americans started to face their fears of immigrants and with the help of journalists like Jacob Riis and Ida Tarbel. These two journalists were leaders in helping to expose the corruption of corporate companies and through their writings many people were forced to think about "what democracy [actually] meant". One of the largest proponents for this reform was President Theodore Roosevelt. During his presidency he made sure to put federal regulations on large corporate companies to keep them from building trusts and not get out of hand in their dealings with workers.

In a quick analysis of what I've read, progressives pushed for large social reforms to help raise the living standard of everyone in the United States. It was like a large cleansing of the American mindset. Through outlets like newspapers and even the government people were shown the horrors of factory work, our terrible treatment of immigrants and the greed of the corporate world. With this information in mind and my research I will attempt to separate the goals into separate categories.

Essential Goals: Reformation of Federal Regulation on Corporate Conglomerates, Getting back to Democratic Republic roots of government, localized political parties more connected to public opinion.
Lifestyle Changes: Acceptance of Immigrants, erasure of racism and social Darwinism
After Thought Goals: "universal military service" (Encyclopedia Britannica), equalization of genders
Don't Try This EVER: Urge of "'enlightenment' rather than... political sovereignty" (Encyclopedia Britannica)