The progress that Henry George had talked about in his work, Progress and Poverty, made possible the Progressive movement in many ways. Despite the harsh conditions for workers, living standards had risen dramatically for many since the Civil war. Education was expanded, people had more leisure time, newspapers, books and magazines proliferated, and a new breed of jou

There was a good deal of moralism in the Progressive movement, and Progressives were often seen as sanctimonious busybodies and meddlers, poking around in things that were none of their business. For others the Progressives, and the muckrakers who provided the raw material for those reformers, were upholding American values and the American way of life. For still others they were helping working people by rescuing capitalism from its worst excesses, and because businessmen were smart enough to see that discontented, angry workers were a threat to their livelihood, they often supported Progressivism and even led the charge, thought it might cost them in the short run. This phenomenon of short-term sacrifice for long-term advantage is an example of what is often called enlightened self-interest.

rnalists began to examine American life in detail. These new journalists became known as the muckrakers, and they benefited from the wide circulation of magazines and newspapers made possible through advertising.

Although the muckrakers themselves were sometimes guilty of the things they complained about, muckraking, which we now call investigative journalism, became a highly respected vocation. Writers like Jacob Riis, Lincoln Steffens and Ida Tarbell wrote long, detailed articles and entire books exposing fraud, waste, corruption and other evils in government, business and social structures such as the slums of the cities. They took on bossism, profiteering, child labor, public health and safety, prostitution, alcohol, political corruption and almost every aspect of public and even private life. They achieved some spectacular successes at virtually every level, from child labor laws across the country to prohibition at the national level.

While the southern slaves had a hard time doing their job because of the lack of technology, the northern factory workers had an immense amount of technology. "The novelty of it made it seem easy, and it really was not that hard to change the bobbins on the spinning-frames every three-quarters of an hour or so, with half a dozen other little girls who are doing the same thing... But in a room below us we were sometimes allowed to peer in through a sort of blind door at the great water wheel that carried the works of the whole mill." (Larcom, 59) Half of the day when they were not spending their time or spinning thread at the spinning at the spinning room they were frolicking. Machinery made their life much easier. Without the water wheel, which carried the whole factory, their work would be a lot harder.

The roots of Progressivism go back to the Populist era. The Progressives did not discover for the first time that America had problems, nor were they the first reformers. But it was the largest movement of its kind in Ameri

Some common words found in the essay are:
Progressives It's, Ida Tarbell, Poverty Progressive, Progressivism Populist, Smith Americans, Gilded Age, Progressive Movement, factory worker, life factory, life factory worker, life slave, lack technology, exhausting physical labor, physical labor, stressful life, exhausting physical, stressful life factory, factory workers, Henry George, life slave stressful, worker exhausting, slave stressful, factory worker exhausting,
Approximate Word count = 1874
Approximate Pages = 7 (250 words per page double spaced)