Progressive Reform Movement

A detailed Summary of Progressive Reform Movement

The Social Origins of the Progressive Reform Movement

Throughout history many interpretations of the Progressive Movement and its goals and motives have been produced. Historians during different ages have analysisd the different aspects of the progressives and what made them who they where. This paper will classify and analyze each of the assigned historians to fully understand an important time in history.

When it comes to the Progressive Movement and it's specific politics many historians provide different causes and influences. Who were the progressives, what did they accomplish? J. Joseph Huthmacher contends that the progressives were mainly lower class citizen's who were part of the ever so growing melting pot of the industrialized America. Huthmacher writes about how the middle class helped the cause, but it was the lower class who had the most bearing on the issue, and who would be the most affected. He points out as he queries "How does one explain the fact that in the legislature of New York and Massachusetts many reform bills received more uniform and consistent support from representatives of urban lower class then they received from the urban middle class or rural representatives."(Huthmacker) It seems logical tha

O the four historians Mowry that it was "economically secure, well educated, middle class group" who perpetuated the belief that "men are good", one of the common phrases associated with the times (Mowry). Maintaining a view that the Progressives were a educated middle class Mowry sites that the progressives believed that the city was the source of many of their problems. He mentions that the whole cause of the movement in the first place was the middle class society lobbying to preserve its declining position of leadership in the everyday way of living. Progressives according to Mowry sought reform by through beliefs in politics and what it would achieve in the political arena (Mowry). In reading the different historians interpretations, the political platform was a major key to whoever would push the issues of reform. Kolko agrees with this viewpoint but again standing with his New Left ideals hypothesizes that nothing would ever get accomplished because the reformist belong to the upper class society. They were the owners and leaders of the big businesses where the reform was being sought yet they were also the reformers (Kolko). He interpreted that what these progressives would do, would be beneficial to them and their business rather than the rest of the middle to lower class society.

Anne Fior Scott a consensus idealist doesn't take on the same view as Mowry, Huthmacher, and Kolko in terms of class but lo

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Approximate Word count = 958
Approximate Pages = 4 (250 words per page double spaced)

Category: History