history - progressive reforms
At the turn of the century, a spirit of reform known as progressivism took hold of many American people. Less a united movement than a loose gathering of casual and improbable alliances, progressivism targeted the massive problems of an urban, industrialized nation. In spite of resistance, progressives were able to redefine government's role in American life, make a serious run for the White House, and ratify such lasting reforms. In the nightfall of the 1800's, many citizens could see that existing efforts to solve the substantial problems of industrialization were failing. The 1880's and 1890's were filled with lively debates about how to reform society. The ideas of journalists Henry George and Edward Bellamy were among the most popular. In 1879 Henry George had written a book Progress and Poverty in an effort to explain why an advanced civilization seemed to increase rather than eliminate poverty. George proposed to solve this problem by ending taxes on improvements on land, such as housing and cultivation. George proposed just a single tax - on the value of land itself. Such a tax would make a speculation in land less attractive by increasing the cost of
By the mid - 1910's, progressives could take pride in the many changes they had helped bring about, such as redefining the role of government in business and politics. Some reformers included Henry George, Edward Bellamy, Florence Kelley, and the nation separated as local, state, and federal. The beginning of the war in Europe brought about the end of the progressive era in 1914, by the end of 1916 the reform period of the United States had sputtered out. Progressivism appeared at the federal level in labor and industrial relations, in the regulation of business and commerce. By the time Theodore Roosevelt completed his second term in 1909, the government had filed forty - two antitrust actions. The beef trust, Standard Oil, and the American Tobacco Company were either broken up or forced to reorganize. Roosevelt was not antibusiness. He did not wish to destroy trusts he deemed "good," or not harmful to the public, he just felt they should be supervised and controlled. The progressive era also gave way to they sixteenth and seventeenth amendments. The sixteenth amendment allowed government to raise more revenue from wealthy people's income and less from tar
Some common words found in the essay are:
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Approximate Word count = 786
Approximate Pages = 3 (250 words per page double spaced)
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