Social Reform: The Progressive Era

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The Progressive era was a period of widespread social activism and political reform across the United States. The era lasted thirty years and helped to solve some of the major issues that were presented during the time. There were many social activists during the period. Their goal was to fix some of the issues in our country. There were many problems presented in American life during the late 1800s and early 1900s. Some of the problems were child labor, immigrants, and issues in the legislative branch. The Progressive era attempted to fix these issues by expanding democracy, creating economic reform, and promoting social welfare.
Expanding democracy was a large part of the Progressive Era. The country’s politicians were very fond of the idea …show more content…
A muckraker is a journalist who exposed problems in politics and industries. There were many issues in the meat industry. The meat was usually rotten, so the workers at the factory would rub baking soda onto it so it wouldn’t smell (document 3). Once the meat was smelling better, the put it into a pile in a room with a leaky roof. The meat would fall onto the floor and become moldy. With the moldy meat and leaky roof, it was a perfect place for rats. The workers would put out poisoned bread to kill the rats (document 3). Then, everything would be ground up together: the rotten meat, the poisoned bread, and the dead rats. Sinclair was suspicious of the factories, so he planted himself in one as a worker. Once he found out what was going into the meat, he wrote his book, The Jungle. After it was published, he sent a copy to President Roosevelt. The president was so disgusted, that he immediately formed the Pure Food and Drug Act. There were many muckrakers during the Progressive era, such as Jacob Riis. Riis lived in the slums of New York after emigrating from Denmark (biography.com). Riis spent some of his time taking photographs of average sights in the city. In his photos, Riis displayed the terrible conditions of the cities, the quality of tenements, and the looks of the people living there. One of Riis’ photos illustrates how cold the rooms were in the tenements (document 1). The men in the picture are sleeping …show more content…
Some of them were child labor, immigrants, and the issues in the legislative branch. The Progressive era attempted to fix these issues by creating economic reform, expanding democracy, and promoting social welfare. There were also many social activists during the period. Their goal was to fix some of the problems in our nation. The Progressive era was an important part of our history and helped to solve the issues that made our country what it is
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