Popular democracy: Initiative and referendum

Inspiration for the initiative movement was based on the Swiss experience. New Jersey labor activist James W. Sullivan visited Switzerland in 1888 and wrote a detailed book that became a template for reformers pushing the idea: Direct Legislation by the Citizenship Through the Initiative and Referendum (1893).^[14] He suggested that using the initiative would give political power to the working class and reduce the need for strikes. Sullivan's book was first widely read on the left, as by labor activists, socialists and populists. William U'Ren was an early convert who used it to build the Oregon reform crusade. By 1900 middle class "progressive" reformers everywhere were studying it.^[15][16]

Muckraking: exposing corruption

Christmas 1903 cover of McClure's features a muckraking expose of Rockefeller and Standard Oil by Ida Tarbell.

Magazines experienced a boost in popularity in 1900, with some attaining circulations in the hundreds of thousands of subscribers. In the beginning of the age of mass media, the rapid expansion of national advertising led the cover price of popular magazines to fall sharply to about 10 cents, lessening the financial barrier to consume them.^[17] Another factor contributing to the dramatic upswing in magazine circulation was the prominent coverage of corruption in politics, local government, and big business, particularly by journalists and writers who became known as muckrakers. They wrote for popular magazines to expose social and political sins and shortcomings. Relying on their own investigative journalism, muckrakers often worked to expose social ills and corporate and political corruption. Muckraking magazines, notably McClure's, took on corporate monopolies and political machines while raising public awareness of chronic urban poverty, unsafe working conditions, and social issues like child labor.^[18] Most of the muckrakers wrote nonfiction, but fictional exposés often had a major impact as well, such as those by Upton Sinclair.^[19] In his 1906 novel The Jungle, Sinclair exposed the unsanitary and inhumane practices of the meatpacking industry, as he made clear in the Jungle itself. He quipped, "I aimed at the public's heart and by accident, I hit it in the stomach," as readers demanded and got the Meat Inspection Act^[20] and the Pure Food and Drug Act.^[21]

The journalists who specialized in exposing waste, corruption, and scandal operated at the state and local level, like Ray Stannard Baker, George Creel, and Brand Whitlock. Others such as Lincoln Steffens exposed political corruption in many large cities; Ida Tarbell is famed for her criticisms of John D. Rockefeller's Standard Oil Company. In 1906, David Graham Phillips unleashed a blistering indictment of corruption in the U.S. Senate. Roosevelt gave these journalists their nickname when he complained they were not being helpful by raking up too much muck.^[22][23]

Modernization

The Progressives were avid modernizers, with a belief in science and technology as the grand solution to society's flaws. They looked to education as the key to bridging the gap between their present wasteful society and technologically enlightened future society. Characteristics of Progressivism included a favorable attitude toward urban–industrial society, belief in mankind's ability to improve the environment and conditions of life, belief in an obligation to intervene in economic and social affairs, a belief in the ability of experts and in the efficiency of government intervention.^[24][25] Scientific management, as promulgated by Frederick Winslow Taylor, became a watchword for industrial efficiency and elimination of waste, with the stopwatch as its symbol.^[26][27]

Philanthropy

The number of rich families climbed exponentially, from 100 or so millionaires in the 1870s to 4,000 in 1892 and 16,000 in 1916. Many subscribed to Andrew Carnegie's credo outlined in The Gospel of Wealth that said they owed a duty to society that called for philanthropic giving to colleges, hospitals, medical research, libraries, museums, religion, and social betterment.^[28]

In the early 20th century, American philanthropy matured, with the development of very large, highly visible private foundations created by Rockefeller and Carnegie. The largest foundations fostered modern, efficient, business-oriented operations (as opposed to "charity") designed to better society rather than merely enhance the status of the giver. Close ties were built with the local business community, as in the "community chest" movement.^[29] The American Red Cross was reorganized and professionalized.^[30] Several major foundations aided the blacks in the South and were typically advised by Booker T. Washington. By contrast, Europe and Asia had few foundations. This allowed both Carnegie and Rockefeller to operate internationally with a powerful effect.^[31]

Middle class values

Charlotte Perkins Gilman (pictured) wrote these articles about feminism for the Atlanta Constitution, published on December 10, 1916.

A hallmark group of the Progressive Era, the middle class became the driving force behind much of the thought and reform that took place in this time. With an increasing disdain for the upper class and aristocracy of the time, the middle class is characterized by their rejection of the individualistic philosophy of the Upper Ten.^[32] They had a rapidly growing interest in the communication and role between classes, those of which are generally referred to as the upper class, working class, farmers, and themselves.^[33] Along these lines, the founder of Hull-House, Jane Addams, coined the term "association" as a counter to Individualism, with association referring to the search for a relationship between the classes.^[34] Additionally, the middle class (most notably women) began to move away from prior Victorian era domestic values. Divorce rates increased as women preferred to seek education and freedom from the home. In 1860 one marriage in 800 ended in divorce; by 1900 it was one marriage in 8.^[35] Victorianism was pushed aside by the rise of progressivism.^[36]

Leaders and activists

Western states

South

Progressivism was strongest in the cities, but the South was rural with few large cities. Nevertheless, statewide progressive movements were organized by Democrats in every Southern state.^[81] Furthermore, Southern Democrats in Congress gave strong support to President Wilson's reforms.^[82]

The South was a main target of Northern philanthropy designed to fight poverty and disease, and help the black community. Booker T. Washington of the National Negro Business League mobilized small black-owned business and secured access to Northern philanthropy. Across the South the General Education Board (funded by the Rockefeller family) provided large-scale subsidies for black schools, which otherwise continued to be underfunded.^[83] The South was targeted in the 1920s and 1930s by the Julius Rosenwald Fund, which contributed matching funds to local communities for the construction of thousands of schools for African Americans in rural areas throughout the South. Black parents donated land and labor to build improved schools for their children.^[84]

Midwest

Apart from Wisconsin, the Midwestern states were about average in supporting Progressive reforms. Ohio took the lead in municipal reform.

The negative effects of industrialization triggered the political movement of progressivism, which aimed to address its negative consequences through social reform and government regulation. Jane Addams and Ellen Gates Starr pioneered the settlement house outreach to newly arrived immigrants by establishing Hull House in Chicago in 1889. Settlement houses provided social services and played an active role in civic life, helping immigrants prepare for naturalization and campaigning for regulation and services from city government.^[86] Midwestern mayors—especially Hazen S. Pingree and Tom L. Johnson, led early reforms against boss-dominated municipal politics, while Samuel M. Jones advocated public ownership of local utilities. Robert M. La Follette, the most famous leader of Midwestern progressivism, began his career by winning election against his state's Republican party in 1900. The machine was temporarily defeated, allowing reformers to launch the "Wisconsin idea" of expanded democracy. This idea included major reforms such as direct primaries, campaign finance, civil service, anti-lobbying laws, state income and inheritance taxes, child labor restrictions, pure food, and workmen's compensation laws. La Follette promoted government regulation of railroads, public utilities, factories, and banks. Although La Follette lost influence in the national party in 1912, the Wisconsin reforms became a model for national progressivism.^[87]

Antitrust

Standard Oil was widely hated. Many newspapers reprinted attacks from a flagship Democratic newspaper, The New York World, which made this trust a special target. For example, a feature article in 1897 stated:

There has been no outrage too colossal, no petty meanness too contemptible for these freebooters to engage in. From hounding and driving prosperous businessman to beggery and suicide, to holding up and plundering widows and orphans, the little dealer in the country and the crippled peddler on the highway—all this is entered into the exploits of this organized gang of commercial bandits.^[108]

There were legal efforts to curtail the oil monopoly in the Midwest and South. Tennessee, Illinois, Kentucky and Kansas took the lead in 1904–1905, followed by Arkansas, Iowa, Maryland, Minnesota, Mississippi, Nebraska, Ohio, Oklahoma, Texas and West Virginia. The results were mixed. Federal action finally won out in 1911, splitting Standard Oil into 33 companies. The 33 seldom competed with each other. The federal decision together with the Clayton Antitrust Act of 1914 and the creation that year of the Federal Trade Commission largely de-escalated the antitrust rhetoric among progressives.^[109][110] The new framework after 1914 had little or no impact on the direction and magnitude of merger activity.^[111]

Primaries

By 1890, the secret ballot was widely adopted by the states for elections, which was non-controversial and resulted in the elimination of purchased votes since the purchaser couldn't determine how the voter cast their vote. Despite this change, the candidates were still selected by party conventions. In the 1890s, the South witnessed a decrease in the possibility of Republican or Populist or coalition victories in most elections, with the Democratic Party gaining full control over all statewide Southern elections. To prevent factionalism within the Democratic Party, Southern states began implementing primaries. However, candidates who competed in the primaries and lost were prohibited from running as independents in the fall election. Louisiana was the first state to introduce primaries in 1892, and by 1907, eleven Southern and border states had implemented statewide primaries.^[112]

In the North, Robert LaFollette introduced the primary in Wisconsin in 1904. Most Northern states followed suit, with reformers proclaiming grass roots democracy. The party leaders and bosses also wanted direct primaries to minimize the risk of sore losers running as independents.^[113][114]

When candidates for office were selected by the party caucus (meetings open to the public) or by statewide party conventions of elected delegates, the public lost a major opportunity to shape policy. The progressive solution was the "open" primary by which any citizen could vote, or the "closed" primary limited to party members. In the early 20th century most states adopted the system for local and state races—but only 14 used it for delegates to the national presidential nominating conventions. The biggest battles came in New York state, where the conservatives fought hard for years against several governors until the primary was finally adopted in 1913.^[115][116]

Government reform

Disturbed by the waste, inefficiency, stubbornness, corruption, and injustices of the Gilded Age, the Progressives were committed to changing and reforming every aspect of the state, society and economy. Significant changes enacted at the national levels included the imposition of an income tax with the Sixteenth Amendment, direct election of Senators with the Seventeenth Amendment, prohibition of alcohol with the Eighteenth Amendment, election reforms to stop corruption and fraud, and women's suffrage through the Nineteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.^[117]

A main objective of the Progressive Era movement was to eliminate corruption within the government. They made it a point to also focus on family, education, and many other important aspects that still are enforced today. The most important political leaders during this time were Theodore Roosevelt, and Robert M. La Follette. Key Democratic leaders were William Jennings Bryan, Woodrow Wilson, and Al Smith.^[118]

This movement targeted the regulations of huge monopolies and corporations. This was done through antitrust laws to promote equal competition amongst every business. This was done through the Sherman Act of 1890, the Clayton Act of 1914, and the Federal Trade Commission Act of 1914.^[118]

Family roles

Colorado judge Ben Lindsey, a pioneer in the establishment of juvenile court systems

By the late 19th century urban and rural governments had systems in place for welfare to the poor and incapacitated. Progressives argued these needs deserved a higher priority.^[120] Local public assistance programs were reformed to try to keep families together.^[121] Inspired by crusading Judge Ben Lindsey of Denver, cities established juvenile courts to deal with disruptive teenagers without sending them to adult prisons.^[122][123]

Pure food, drugs, and water

The purity of food, milk, and drinking water became a high priority in the cities. At the state and national levels new food and drug laws strengthened urban efforts to guarantee the safety of the food system. The 1906 federal Pure Food and Drug Act, which was pushed by drug companies and providers of medical services, removed from the market patent medicines that had never been scientifically tested.^[124]

With the decrease in standard working hours, urban families had more leisure time. Many spent this leisure time at movie theaters. Progressives advocated censorship of motion pictures as it was believed that patrons (especially children) viewing movies in dark, unclean, potentially unsafe theaters, might be negatively influenced in witnessing actors portraying crimes, violence, and sexually suggestive situations. Progressives across the country influenced municipal governments of large urban cities, to build numerous parks where it was believed that leisure time for children and families could be spent in a healthy, wholesome environment, thereby fostering good morals and citizenship.^[125]

Social hygiene movement

The social hygiene movement brought together different groups that were concerned with venereal disease, prostitution, society's moral standards, and family life. The primary objective was to enhance public health and promote social morality, specifically in matters concerning sexuality and reproductive health.^[126] The movement targeted prostitution or "white slavery" and aimed to eliminate it by criminalizing it and enforcing stricter penalties for those involved in the sex trade.^[127] When the U.S. entered the war a high priority was to end prostitution in proximity to military installations. The result was a permanent closing of red light districts in major cities.^[128][129]

Besides public health, the social hygiene movement also aimed to uphold moral purity and family values. The Women's Christian Temperance Union (WCTU) and the Young Men's Christian Association (YMCA) were among the leading groups that encouraged abstinence and discouraged premarital sex. They also advocated for more stringent censorship of literature and entertainment deemed morally unacceptable.^[130] While the social hygiene movement achieved considerable success in promoting public health and morality, its approach of criminalizing prostitution and promoting abstinence failed to address the underlying causes of these issues, such as poverty, economic inequality, and gender inequality. Moreover, its strict moral standards often marginalized groups such as immigrants and African Americans. Nonetheless, the movement genuinely sought to promote public health and social morality and to create a more stable and ordered society.^[131]

Women

In 1912 women's suffrage headquarters reached out to men in Cleveland, Ohio.

Across the nation, middle-class women organized on behalf of social reforms during the Progressive Era. Using the language of municipal housekeeping women were able to push such reforms as prohibition, women's suffrage, child-saving, and public health.

Middle-class women formed local clubs, which after 1890 were coordinated by the General Federation of Women's Clubs (GFWC). Historian Paige Meltzer puts the GFWC in the context of the Progressive Movement, arguing that its policies:

built on Progressive-era strategies of municipal housekeeping. During the Progressive era, female activists used traditional constructions of womanhood, which imagined all women as mothers and homemakers, to justify their entrance into community affairs: as "municipal housekeepers," they would clean up politics, cities, and see after the health and well-being of their neighbors. Donning the mantle of motherhood, female activists methodically investigated their community's needs and used their "maternal" expertise to lobby, create, and secure a place for themselves in an emerging state welfare bureaucracy, best illustrated perhaps by clubwoman Julia Lathrop's leadership in the Children's Bureau. As part of this tradition of maternal activism, the Progressive-era General Federation supported a range of causes from the pure food and drug administration to public health care for mothers and children, to a ban on child labor, each of which looked to the state to help implement their vision of social justice.^[136]

Some activists demanded change, and questioned the old thinking regarding marriage and sexuality. They craved more sexual freedom following the sexually repressive and restrictive Victorian Era.^[137] Dating became a new way of courting during the Progressive Era and moved youth into a more romantic way of viewing marriage and relationships.^[137] Within more engagements and marriages, both parties would exchange love notes as a way to express their sexual feelings. The divide between aggressive passionate love associated usually with men and a women's more spiritual romantic love became apparent in the middle class as women were judged on how they should be respected based on how they expressed these feelings.^[137] So, frequently women expressed passionless emotions towards love as a way to establish status among men in the middle class.^[137]

Women's suffrage

The National American Woman Suffrage Association (NAWSA) was an American women's rights organization formed in May 1890 as a unification of the National Woman Suffrage Association (NWSA) and the American Woman Suffrage Association (AWSA). The NAWSA set up hundreds of smaller local and state groups, with the goal of passing woman suffrage legislation at the state and local level. The NAWSA was the largest and most important suffrage organization in the United States, and was the primary promoter of women's right to vote. Carrie Chapman Catt was the key leader in the early 20th century. Like AWSA and NWSA before it, the NAWSA pushed for a constitutional amendment guaranteeing women's voting rights, and was instrumental in winning the ratification of the Nineteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution in 1920.^[138][139] A breakaway group, the National Woman's Party, tightly controlled by Alice Paul, used civil disobedience to gain publicity and force passage of suffrage. Paul's members chained themselves to the White House fence to get arrested, then went on hunger strikes to gain publicity. While the British suffragettes stopped their protests in 1914 and supported the British war effort, Paul began her campaign in 1917 and was widely criticized for ignoring the war and attracting radical anti-war elements.^[140]

A lesser-known feminist movement in the progressive era was the self-defense movement. According to Wendy Rouse, feminists sought to raise awareness about the sexual harassment and violence that women faced on the street, at work, and in the home. They wanted to inspire a sense of physical and personal empowerment through training in active self-defense.^[141]

Race relations

Across the South, black communities developed their own Progressive reform projects.^[142][143] Typical projects involved upgrading schools, modernizing church operations, expanding business opportunities, fighting for a larger share of state budgets, and engaging in legal action to secure equal rights.^[144] Reform projects were especially notable in rural areas, where the great majority of Southern blacks lived.^[145]

Rural blacks were heavily involved in environmental issues, in which they developed their own traditions and priorities.^[146][147] George Washington Carver (1860–1943) was a leader in promoting environmentalism, and was well known for his research projects, particularly those involving agriculture.^[148]

Although there were some achievements that improved conditions for African Americans and other non-white minorities, the Progressive Era was still in the midst of the nadir of American race relations. While white Progressives in principle believed in improving conditions for minority groups, there were wide differences in how this was to be achieved. Some, such as Lillian Wald, fought to alleviate the plight of poor African Americans. Many, though, were concerned with enforcing, not eradicating, racial segregation. In particular, the mixing of black and white pleasure-seekers in "black-and-tan" clubs troubled Progressive reformers.^[149] The Progressive ideology espoused by many of the era attempted to correct societal problems created by racial integration following the Civil War by segregating the races and allowing each group to achieve its own potential; most Progressives saw racial integration as a problem to be solved, rather than a goal to be achieved.^{[150][151][152]} As white Progressives sought to help the white working class, clean up politics, and improve the cities, the country instated the system of racial segregation known as Jim Crow.^[153]

One of the most impacting issues African Americans had to face during the Progressive Era was the right to vote. By the beginning of the 20th century, African Americans were "disfranchised", while in the years prior to this, the right to vote had been guaranteed to "freedmen" through the Civil Rights Act of 1870.^[154] Southern whites wanted to rid of the political influence of the black vote, citing "that black voting meant only corruption of elections, incompetence of government, and the engendering of fierce racial antagonisms."^[154] Progressive whites found a "loophole" to the 15th Amendment's prohibition of denying one the right to vote due to race through the grandfather clause.^[154] This allowed for the creation of literacy tests that would essentially be designed for whites to pass them but not African Americans or any other persons of color.^[154] Actions such as these from whites of the Progressive Era are some of the many that tied into the Progressive goal, as historian Michael McGerr states, "to segregate society."^[155]

Legal historian Herbert Hovenkap argues that while many early Progressives inherited the racism of Jim Crow, as they began to innovate their own ideas, they would embrace behaviorism, cultural relativism, and marginalism, which stress environmental influences on humans rather than biological inheritance. He states that ultimately Progressives "were responsible for bringing scientific racism to an end".^[156]

Democracy

Theodore Roosevelt (1901–1909; left), William Howard Taft (1909–1913; center) and Woodrow Wilson (1913–1921; right) were the progressive Presidents; their administrations promoted political reforms.

Many Progressives sought to enable the citizenry to rule more directly and circumvent machines, bosses and professional politicians. The institution of the initiative and referendums made it possible to pass laws without the involvement of the legislature, while the recall allowed for the removal of corrupt or under-performing officials, and the direct primary let people democratically nominate candidates, avoiding the professionally dominated conventions. Thanks to the efforts of Oregon State Representative William S. U'Ren and his Direct Legislation League, voters in Oregon overwhelmingly approved a ballot measure in 1902 that created the initiative and referendum processes for citizens to directly introduce or approve proposed laws or amendments to the state constitution, making Oregon the first state to adopt such a system. U'Ren also helped in the passage of an amendment in 1908 that gave voters power to recall elected officials, and would go on to establish, at the state level, popular election of U.S. Senators and the first presidential primary in the United States. In 1911, California governor Hiram Johnson established the Oregon System of "Initiative, Referendum, and Recall" in his state, viewing them as good influences for citizen participation against the historic influence of large corporations on state lawmakers.^[157] These Progressive reforms were soon replicated in other states, including Idaho, Washington, and Wisconsin, and today roughly half of U.S. states have initiative, referendum and recall provisions in their state constitutions.^[158]

The Seventeenth Amendment was ratified in 1913, requiring that all senators be elected by the people (they were formerly appointed by state legislatures). The main motivation was to reduce the power of political bosses, who controlled the Senate seats by virtue of their control of state legislatures. The result, according to political scientist Henry Jones Ford, was that the United States Senate had become a "Diet of party lords, wielding their power without scruple or restraint, on behalf of those particular interests" that put them in office.^[159]

Reformers also sought to streamline government through the introduction of the short ballot. By reducing the number of elected officials and consolidating their power in singular officials like a governor they hoped to increase accountability and clarity in government. Woodrow Wilson was at one point the President of the National Short Ballot Organization.^[160]

Municipal reform

A coalition of middle class reform-oriented voters, academic experts, and reformers hostile to the political machines started forming in the 1890s and introduced a series of reforms in urban America, designed to reduce waste, inefficiency and corruption, by introducing scientific methods, compulsory education and administrative innovations.

The pace was set in Detroit, Michigan, where Republican mayor Hazen S. Pingree first put together the reform coalition as mayor 1889–1897.^[169] Many cities set up municipal reference bureaus to study the budgets and administrative structures of local governments.

Progressive mayors took the lead in many key cities,^[170] such as Cleveland, Ohio (especially Mayor Tom Johnson); Toledo, Ohio;^[171] Jersey City, New Jersey;^[172] Los Angeles;^[173] Memphis, Tennessee;^[174] Louisville, Kentucky;^[175] and many other cities, especially in the western states. In Illinois, Governor Frank Lowden undertook a major reorganization of state government.^[176] In Wisconsin, the stronghold of Robert La Follette, the Wisconsin Idea used the state university as a major source of ideas and expertise.^[177]

Rural reform

As late as 1920, half the population lived in rural areas. They experienced their own progressive reforms, typically with the explicit goal of upgrading country life.^[180] By 1910, most farmers subscribed to a farm newspaper, where editors promoted efficiency as applied to farming.^[181] Special efforts were made to reach the rural South and remote areas, such as the mountains of Appalachia and the Ozarks.^[182]

Modern vs traditional conflicts

The movement's attempts at introducing urban reforms to rural America often met resistance from traditionalists who saw the country-lifers as aggressive modernizers who were condescending and out of touch with rural life. The traditionalists said many of their reforms were unnecessary and not worth the trouble of implementing. Rural residents also disagreed with the notion that farms needed to improve their efficiency, as they saw this goal as serving urban interests more than rural ones. The social conservatism of many rural residents also led them to resist attempts for change led by outsiders. Most important, the traditionalists did not want to become modern, and did not want their children inculcated with alien modern values through comprehensive schools that were remote from local control.^[190][191] The most successful reforms came from the farmers who pursued agricultural extension, as their proposed changes were consistent with existing modernizing trends toward more efficiency and more profit in agriculture.

Constitutional change

The Progressives fixed some of their reforms into law by adding amendments 16, 17, 18, and 19 to the Constitution of the United States. The 16th amendment made an income tax legal (this required an amendment due to Article One, Section 9 of the Constitution, which required that direct taxes be laid on the States in proportion to their population as determined by the decennial census). The Progressives also made strides in attempts to reduce political corruption through the 17th amendment (direct election of U.S. Senators). The most radical and controversial amendment came during the anti-German craze of World War I that helped the Progressives and others push through their plan for prohibition through the 18th amendment (once the Progressives fell out of power the 21st amendment repealed the 18th in 1933). The ratification of the 19th amendment in 1920, which recognized women's suffrage was the last amendment during the progressive era.^[192] Another significant constitutional change that began during the progressive era was the incorporation of the Bill of Rights so that those rights would apply to the states. In 1920, Benjamin Gitlow was convicted under the Espionage Act of 1917 and the case went all the way to the Supreme Court, where the justices decided that the First Amendment applied to the states as well as the federal government. Prior to that time, the Bill of Rights was considered to apply only to the federal government, not the states.

National economic policy

President Wilson used tariff, currency, and antitrust laws to prime the pump and get the economy working.

The Progressive Era was one of general prosperity after the Panic of 1893—a severe depression—ended in 1897. The Panic of 1907 was short and mostly affected financiers. However, Campbell (2005) stresses the weak points of the economy in 1907–1914, linking them to public demands for more Progressive interventions. The Panic of 1907 was followed by a small decline in real wages and increased unemployment, with both trends continuing until World War I. Campbell emphasizes the resulting stress on public finance and the impact on the Wilson administration's policies. The weakened economy and persistent federal deficits led to changes in fiscal policy, including the imposition of federal income taxes on businesses and individuals and the creation of the Federal Reserve System.^[193] Government agencies were also transformed in an effort to improve administrative efficiency.^[194]

In the Gilded Age (late 19th century), the parties were reluctant to involve the federal government too heavily in the private sector, except in the area of railroads and tariffs. In general, they accepted the concept of laissez-faire, a doctrine opposing government interference in the economy except to maintain law and order. This attitude started to change during the depression of the 1890s when small business, farm, and labor movements began asking the government to intercede on their behalf.^[194]

By the start of the 20th century, a middle class had developed that was weary of both the business elite and the radical political movements of farmers and laborers in the Midwest and West. The Progressives argued the need for government regulation of business practices to ensure competition and free enterprise. Congress enacted a law regulating railroads in 1887 (the Interstate Commerce Act), and one preventing large firms from controlling a single industry in 1890 (the Sherman Antitrust Act). These laws were not rigorously enforced, however, until the years between 1900 and 1920, when Republican President Theodore Roosevelt (1901–1909), Democratic President Woodrow Wilson (1913–1921), and others sympathetic to the views of the Progressives came to power. Many of today's U.S. regulatory agencies were created during these years, including the Interstate Commerce Commission and the Federal Trade Commission. Muckrakers were journalists who encouraged readers to demand more regulation of business. Upton Sinclair's The Jungle (1906) was influential and persuaded America about the supposed horrors of the Chicago Union Stock Yards, a giant complex of meat processing plants that developed in the 1870s. The federal government responded to Sinclair's book and the Neill–Reynolds Report with the new regulatory Food and Drug Administration. Ida M. Tarbell wrote a series of articles against Standard Oil, which was perceived to be a monopoly. This affected both the government and the public reformers. Attacks by Tarbell and others helped pave the way for public acceptance of the breakup of the company by the Supreme Court in 1911.^[194]

When Democrat Woodrow Wilson was elected president with a Democratic Congress in 1912 he implemented a series of Progressive policies in economics. In 1913, the Sixteenth Amendment was ratified, and a small income tax was imposed on higher incomes. The Democrats lowered tariffs with the Underwood Tariff in 1913, though its effects were overwhelmed by the changes in trade caused by the World War that broke out in 1914. Wilson proved especially effective in mobilizing public opinion behind tariff changes by denouncing corporate lobbyists, addressing Congress in person in highly dramatic fashion, and staging an elaborate ceremony when he signed the bill into law.^[195] Wilson helped end the long battles over the trusts with the Clayton Antitrust Act of 1914. He managed to convince lawmakers on the issues of money and banking by the creation in 1913 of the Federal Reserve System, a complex business–government partnership that to this day dominates the financial world.^[196]

Immigration policy

Manhattan's Little Italy, Lower East Side, c. 1900.

The influx of immigration grew steadily after 1896, with most new arrivals being unskilled workers from southern and eastern Europe. These immigrants were able to find work in the steel mills, slaughterhouses, fishing industry, and construction crews of the emergent mill towns and industrial cities mostly in the Northeast, Midwest, and West Coast. The outbreak of World War I in 1914 halted most transcontinental immigration, only after 1919 did the flow of immigrants resume. Starting in the 1880s, the labor unions aggressively promoted restrictions on immigration, especially restrictions on Chinese, Japanese and Korean immigrants.^[202] In combination with the racist attitudes of the time, there was a fear that large numbers of unskilled, low-paid workers would defeat the union's efforts to raise wages through collective bargaining.^[203] In addition, rural Protestants distrusted the urban Catholic and Jewish immigrants from Southern and Eastern Europe, and on those grounds opposed immigration.^[204] On the other hand, the rapid growth of industry called for a greater and expanding labor pool that could not be met by natural birth rates. As a result, many large corporations were opposed to immigration restrictions. By the early 1920s, a consensus had been reached that the total influx of immigration had to be restricted, and a series of laws in the 1920s accomplished that purpose.^[205] A handful of eugenics advocates were also involved in immigration restriction for their own pseudo-scientific reasons.^[206] Immigration restriction continued to be a national policy until after World War II.

During World War I, the Progressives strongly promoted Americanization programs, designed to modernize the recent immigrants and turn them into model American citizens, while diminishing loyalties to the old country.^[207] These programs often operated through the public school system, which expanded dramatically.^[208]

Foreign policy

Newspaper reporting the annexation of the Republic of Hawaii in 1898

Progressives looked to legal arbitration as an alternative to warfare. The two leading proponents were Taft, a constitutional lawyer who later became Chief Justice, and Democratic leaders William Jennings Bryan. Taft's political base was the conservative business community which largely supported peace movements before 1914. The businessmen believed that economic rivalries were cause of war, and that extensive trade led to an interdependent world that would make war a very expensive and useless anachronism. One early success came in the Newfoundland fisheries dispute between the United States and Britain in 1910. In 1911, Taft's diplomats signed wide-ranging arbitration treaties with France and Britain. However he was defeated by former President Theodore Roosevelt, who had broken with his protégé Taft in 1910. They were dueling for control of the Republican Party and Roosevelt encouraged the Senate to impose amendments that significantly weakened the treaties. On the one hand, Roosevelt was acting to sabotage Taft's campaign promises.^[209] At a deeper level, Roosevelt truly believed that arbitration was a naïve solution and the great issues had to be decided by warfare. The Roosevelt in approach incorporated a near-mystical faith of the ennobling nature of war. It endorsed jingoistic nationalism as opposed to the businessmen's calculation of profit and national interest. ^[210]

Foreign policy in the progressive era was often marked by a tone of moral supremacy. Woodrow Wilson and William Jennings Bryan both saw themselves as 'Missionaries of Democracy', with the deliberate religious overtone. Historian Arthur S. Link says they felt they were, "Inspired by the confidence that they knew better how to promote the peace and well-being of other countries than did the leaders of those countries themselves."^[211] Similar ideas and language had already been used previously in the Monroe Doctrine, wherein Roosevelt claimed that the United States could serve as the police of the world, using its power to end unrest and wrongdoing on the western hemisphere. Using this moralistic approach, Roosevelt argued for intervention with Cuba to help it to become a "just and stable civilization", by way of the Platt amendment. Wilson used a similar moralistic tone when dealing with Mexico. In 1913, while revolutionaries took control of the government, Wilson judged them to be immoral, and refused to acknowledge the in-place government on that reason alone.^[212]

Overseas possessions: the Philippines

A cartoon of Uncle Sam seated in restaurant looking at the bill of fare containing "Cuba steak", "Porto Rico pig", the "Philippine Islands" and the "Sandwich Islands" (Hawaii)

The Philippines were acquired by the United States in 1899, after victory over Spanish forces at the Battle of Manila Bay and a long series of controversial political debates between the senate and President McKinley and was considered the largest colonial acquisition by the United States at this time.^[213]

While anti-imperialist sentiments had been prevalent in the United States during this time, the acquisition of the Philippines sparked the relatively minor population into action. Voicing their opinions in public, they sought to deter American leaders from keeping the Asian-Pacific nation and to avoid the temptations of expansionist tendencies that were widely viewed as "un-American" at that time.^[214]

The Philippines was a major target for the progressive reformers. A 1907 report to Secretary of War Taft provided a summary of what the American civil administration had achieved. It included, in addition to the rapid building of a public school system based on English teaching, and boasted about such modernizing achievements as:

steel and concrete wharves at the newly renovated Port of Manila; dredging the River Pasig; streamlining of the Insular Government; accurate, intelligible accounting; the construction of a telegraph and cable communications network; the establishment of a postal savings bank; large-scale road- and bridge-building; impartial and incorrupt policing; well-financed civil engineering; the conservation of old Spanish architecture; large public parks; a bidding process for the right to build railways; Corporation law; and a coastal and geological survey.^[215]

In 1903, the American reformers in the Philippines passed two major land acts designed to turn landless peasants into owners of their farms. By 1905, the law was clearly a failure. Reformers such as Taft believed landownership would turn unruly agrarians into loyal subjects. The social structure in rural Philippines was highly traditional and highly unequal. Drastic changes in land ownership posed a major challenge to local elites, who would not accept it, nor would their peasant clients. The American reformers blamed peasant resistance to landownership for the law's failure and argued that large plantations and sharecropping was the Philippines' best path to development.^[216]

Elite Filipina women played a major role in the reform movement, especially on health issues. They specialized on such urgent needs as infant care and maternal and child health, the distribution of pure milk and teaching new mothers about children's health. The most prominent organizations were the La Protección de la Infancia, and the National Federation of Women's Clubs.^[217]

Rhetoric of righteousness

Mainline Protestant denominations adopted the Social Gospel. The goal was to establish a more perfect society on earth in preparation for Christ's Second Coming. More generally the Social Gospel impulse was base on righteousness, typified by the wide influence of theologian Walter Rauschenbusch.^[218][219] The Presbyterians described the goal in 1910 by proclaiming:

The great ends of the church are the proclamation of the gospel for the salvation of humankind; the shelter, nurture, and spiritual fellowship of the children of God; the maintenance of divine worship; the preservation of truth; the promotion of social righteousness; and the exhibition of the Kingdom of Heaven to the world.^[220]

Many progressive leaders used the rhetoric of righteousness to motivate their Protestant supporters. Indeed, Richard Hosfstadter argued that Progressivism was, "a phase in the history of the Protestant conscience, a latter-day Protestant revival."^[221] Wilson and Bryan were moralistic and very religious; Roosevelt and La Follette were moralistic and not very religious.^{[222][223][224]}

Roosevelt's rhetoric was characterized by an intense moralism of personal righteousness.^{[225][226][227]} The tone was typified by his denunciation of "predatory wealth" in a message he sent Congress in January 1908 calling for passage of new labor laws:

Predatory wealth—of the wealth accumulated on a giant scale by all forms of iniquity, ranging from the oppression of wageworkers to unfair and unwholesome methods of crushing out competition, and to defrauding the public by stock jobbing and the manipulation of securities. Certain wealthy men of this stamp, whose conduct should be abhorrent to every man of ordinarily decent conscience, and who commit the hideous wrong of teaching our young men that phenomenal business success must ordinarily be based on dishonesty, have during the last few months made it apparent that they have banded together to work for a reaction. Their endeavor is to overthrow and discredit all who honestly administer the law, to prevent any additional legislation which would check and restrain them, and to secure if possible a freedom from all restraint which will permit every unscrupulous wrongdoer to do what he wishes unchecked provided he has enough money....The methods by which the Standard Oil people and those engaged in the other combinations of which I have spoken above have achieved great fortunes can only be justified by the advocacy of a system of morality which would also justify every form of criminality on the part of a labor union, and every form of violence, corruption, and fraud, from murder to bribery and ballot box stuffing in politics.^[228]

Prohibition

Prohibition was the outlawing of the manufacture, sale and transport of alcohol. Drinking itself was never prohibited. Throughout the Progressive Era, it remained one of the prominent causes associated with Progressivism at the local, state and national level, though support across the full breadth of Progressives was mixed. It pitted the minority urban Catholic population against the larger rural Protestant element,^[229] Progressivism's rise in the rural communities was aided by the general increase in public consciousness of social issues of the temperance movement, which achieved national success with the passage of the 18th Amendment by Congress in late 1917, and the ratification by three-fourths of the states in 1919. Prohibition was backed by the Methodists, Baptists, Congregationalists, Scandinavian Lutherans and other evangelical churches.^[230][231] In the South, especially in Texas, prohibition was a top priority of the Protestant progressives.^[232][233]

Activists were mobilized by the highly effective Anti-Saloon League.^[234] Timberlake (1963) argues the dries sought to break the liquor trust, weaken the saloon base of big-city machines, enhance industrial efficiency, and reduce the level of wife beating, child abuse, and poverty caused by alcoholism.^[235] Agitation for prohibition began during the Second Great Awakening in the 1840s when crusades against drinking originated from evangelical Protestants.^[236] Evangelicals precipitated the second wave of prohibition legislation during the 1880s, which had as its aim local and state prohibition. During the 1880s, referendums were held at the state level to enact prohibition amendments. Two important groups were formed during this period. The Woman's Christian Temperance Union (WCTU) was formed in 1874.^[237] The Anti-Saloon League which began in Ohio was formed in 1893, uniting activists from different religious groups.^[238] The league, rooted in Protestant churches, envisioned nationwide prohibition. Rather than condemn all drinking, the group focused attention on the saloon which was considered the ultimate symbol of public vice. The league also concentrated on campaigns for the right of individual communities to choose whether to close their saloons.^[239] In 1907, Georgia and Alabama were the first states to go dry followed by Oklahoma, Mississippi, North Carolina, and Tennessee in the following years. In 1913, Congress passed the Webb–Kenyon Act, which forbade the transport of liquor into dry states.

By 1917, two-thirds of the states had some form of prohibition laws and roughly three-quarters of the population lived in dry areas. In 1913, the Anti-Saloon League first publicly appealed for a prohibition amendment. They preferred a constitutional amendment over a federal statute because although harder to achieve, they felt it would be harder to change. As the United States entered World War I, the Conscription Act banned the sale of liquor near military bases.^[240] In August 1917, the Lever Food and Fuel Control Act banned production of distilled spirits for the duration of the war. The War Prohibition Act, November 1918, forbade the manufacture and sale of intoxicating beverages (more than 2.75% alcohol content) until the end of demobilization.

The drys worked energetically to secure two-thirds majority of both houses of Congress and the support of three-quarters of the states needed for an amendment to the federal constitution. Thirty-six states were needed, and organizations were set up at all 48 states to seek ratification. In late 1917, Congress passed the Eighteenth Amendment; it was ratified in 1919 and took effect in January 1920. It prohibited the manufacturing, sale or transport of intoxicating beverages within the United States, as well as import and export. The Volstead Act, 1919, defined intoxicating as having alcohol content greater than 0.5% and established the procedures for federal enforcement of the Act. The states were at liberty to enforce prohibition or not, and most did not try.^[241]

Consumer demand, however, led to a variety of illegal sources for alcohol, especially illegal distilleries and smuggling from Canada and other countries. It is difficult to determine the level of compliance, and although the media at the time portrayed the law as highly ineffective, even if it did not eradicate the use of alcohol, it certainly decreased alcohol consumption during the period. The Eighteenth Amendment was repealed in 1933, with the passage of the Twenty-First Amendment, thanks to a well-organized repeal campaign led by Catholics (who stressed personal liberty) and businessmen (who stressed the lost tax revenue).^[241]

Prohibition also brought a rise to organized crime, which was able to profit off the sales of illegal alcohol. Al Capone was one of the most well-known criminals to partake in illegal alcohol sales. There was a huge demand for alcohol, but most business owners were unwilling to risk getting involved in the transportation of alcohol. The business owners did however have little issue with selling the alcohol that the criminals like Capone provided.^[242]

Organized crime was able to be successful due to their willingness to use intimidation and violence to carry out their illicit enterprises. During prohibition, the mafia was able to grow their stronghold on illegal activities throughout the United States. This illegal behavior began almost in conjunction with prohibition being voted into law. Within the first hours of prohibition, the police in Chicago reported the theft of medicinal liquor.^[243] The prohibition era gangsters outlasted the law and used it as a starting point to launch their criminal enterprises.

Education

The reform of schools and other educational institutions was one of the prime concerns of the middle class during this period. The number of schools in the nation increased dramatically. The face of the Progressive Education Movement in America was John Dewey, a professor at the University of Chicago (1896–1904) who argued, in books such as The Child and the Curriculum and Schools of Tomorrow, that, in addition to teaching academic content, schools should teach everyday skills and promote democratic participation. A higher level of education also gained popularity. By 1930, 12.4% of 18- to 21-year-olds were attending college, whereas in 1890 only about 3% of this demographic had an interest in higher learning.^{[244][245][246]}

Child labor and schooling

Main article: Child labor in the United States

Breaker boys sort coal in an anthracite coal breaker near South Pittston, Pennsylvania, 1911

There was a concern towards working class children being taken out of school to be put straight to work. Progressives around the country put up campaigns to push for an improvement in public education and to make education mandatory.^[249] There were some less successful attempts in the South, where educational levels were far lower.^[250] The Southern Education Board came together to publicize the importance of reform. However, many rejected the reform. Farmers and workers relied heavily on their children to work and help the family's income. Immigrants were not for reform either, fearing that such a thing would Americanize their children.

Enrollment for children (age 5 to 19) in school rose from 51 percent to 59 between 1900 and 1909. Enrollment in public secondary school went from 519,000 to 841,000. School funds and the term of public schools also grew.^[251]

Medicine and law

The Flexner Report of 1910, sponsored by the Carnegie Foundation, professionalized American medicine by discarding the scores of local small medical schools and focusing national funds, resources, and prestige on larger, professionalized medical schools associated with universities.^[252][253] Prominent leaders included the Mayo Brothers whose Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota, became world-famous for innovative surgery.^[254]

In the legal profession, the American Bar Association set up in 1900 the Association of American Law Schools (AALS). It established national standards for law schools, which led to the replacement of the old system of young men studying law privately with established lawyers by the new system of accredited law schools associated with universities.^[255]

Social sciences

Progressive scholars, based at the emerging research universities such as Harvard, Columbia, Johns Hopkins, Chicago, Michigan, Wisconsin, and California, worked to modernize their disciplines. The heyday of the amateur expert gave way to the research professor who published in the new scholarly journals and presses. Their explicit goal was to professionalize and make "scientific" the social sciences, especially history,^[8] economics,^[9] and political science.^[10] Professionalization meant creating new career tracks in the universities, with hiring and promotion dependent on meeting international models of scholarship.

Military

The Commission on Training Camp Activities sought to "socialize and Americanize" troops, especially native-born and foreign-born men, to meet the expected level of societal standards and integrate them into American culture. The ideology of the Commission was characterized by that of the Progressive Era, which strived against prostitution, alcoholism, social diseases, and poor sanitary conditions in major cities. The CTCA attempted to eradicate these problems from military training camps.^{[256][257][258]}

Eugenics

Some Progressives sponsored eugenics as a solution to excessively large or underperforming families, hoping that birth control would enable parents to focus their resources on fewer, better children.^[259] Progressive leaders like Herbert Croly and Walter Lippmann indicated their classically liberal concern over the danger posed to the individual by the practice of eugenics.^[260] The Catholics strongly opposed birth control proposals such as eugenics.^[261]

End of the Era

The Progressive political crusades were overshadowed in 1919 by violent confrontations with Bolsheviks (Communists), anarchists and violent strikes. The crusading element of progressivism thus largely ended, apart from prohibition, although business-oriented efficiency efforts continued.^[265] In 1919, Theodore Roosevelt died and Wilson's health collapsed, leaving a void in top leadership. The major new face was Herbert Hoover.^[266]

Much less settled is the question of when the era ended. Some historians who emphasize civil liberties decry their suppression during 1917–1919 and do not consider the war as rooted in Progressive policy.^[267] A strong anti-war movement headed by noted Progressives including Jane Addams, was suppressed by the Preparedness Movement and Wilson's 1916 re-election, a victory largely enabled by his campaign slogan, "He kept us out of the war."^[268] The slogan was no longer accurate by April 6 of the following year, when Wilson surprised much of the Progressive base that twice elected him and asked a joint session of Congress to declare war on Germany. The Senate voted 82–6 in favor; the House agreed, 373–50. Some historians see the so-called "war to end all wars" as a globalized expression of the American Progressive movement, with Wilson's support for a League of Nations as its climax.^[269]

The politics of the 1920s was unfriendly toward the labor unions and liberal crusaders against business, so many if not most historians who emphasize those themes write off the decade. Urban cosmopolitan scholars recoiled at the moralism of prohibition, the intolerance of the nativists and the KKK, and on those grounds denounced the era. Richard Hofstadter, for example, in 1955 wrote that prohibition, "was a pseudo-reform, a pinched, parochial substitute for reform" that "was carried about America by the rural–evangelical virus".^[270] However, as Arthur S. Link emphasized, the Progressives did not simply roll over and play dead.^[271] Link's argument for continuity through the 1920s stimulated a historiography that found Progressivism to be a potent force. Palmer, pointing to leaders like George Norris, says, "It is worth noting that progressivism, whilst temporarily losing the political initiative, remained popular in many western states and made its presence felt in Washington during both the Harding and Coolidge presidencies."^[272] Gerster and Cords argue that, "Since progressivism was a 'spirit' or an 'enthusiasm' rather than an easily definable force with common goals, it seems more accurate to argue that it produced a climate for reform which lasted well into the 1920s, if not beyond."^[273] Some social historians have posited that the KKK may in fact fit into the Progressive agenda, if Klansmen are portrayed as "ordinary white Protestants" primarily interested in purification of the system, which had long been a core Progressive goal.^[274] This however ignores the violence and racism central to Klan ideology and activities, that had nothing to do with improving society, so much as enforcing racial hierarchies.

While some Progressive leaders became reactionaries, that usually happened in the 1930s, not in the 1920s, as exemplified by William Randolph Hearst,^[275] Herbert Hoover, Al Smith, and Henry Ford.^[276][277]

Business progressivism in 1920s

What historians have identified as "business progressivism", with its emphasis on efficiency and typified by Henry Ford and Herbert Hoover^[278] reached an apogee in the 1920s. Wik, for example, argues that Ford's "views on technology and the mechanization of rural America were generally enlightened, progressive, and often far ahead of his times."^[279]

Tindall stresses the continuing importance of the Progressive movement in the South in the 1920s involving increased democracy, efficient government, corporate regulation, social justice, and governmental public service.^[280][281] William Link finds political Progressivism dominant in most of the South in the 1920s.^[282] Likewise it was influential in the Midwest.^[283]

Historians of women and of youth emphasize the strength of the Progressive impulse in the 1920s.^[284] Women consolidated their gains after the success of the suffrage movement, and moved into causes such as world peace,^[285] good government, maternal care (the Sheppard–Towner Act of 1921),^[286] and local support for education and public health.^[287] The work was not nearly as dramatic as the suffrage crusade, but women voted^[288] and operated quietly and effectively. Paul Fass, speaking of youth, says "Progressivism as an angle of vision, as an optimistic approach to social problems, was very much alive."^[289] International influences that sparked many reform ideas likewise continued into the 1920s, as American ideas of modernity began to influence Europe.^[290]

By 1930, a block of progressive Republicans in the Senate were urging Hoover to take more vigorous action to fight the depression. There were about a dozen members of this group, including William Borah of Idaho, George W. Norris of Nebraska, Robert M. La Follette Jr., of Wisconsin, Gerald Nye of North Dakota, Hiram Johnson of California and Bronson M. Cutting of New Mexico. While these western Republicans could stir up issues, they could rarely forge a majority, since they were too individualistic and did not form a unified caucus.^[291] Hoover himself had sharply moved to the right, and paid little attention to their liberal ideas.^[292] By 1932, this group was moving toward support for Roosevelt's New Deal. They remained staunch isolationists deeply opposed to any involvement in Europe. Outside the Senate, however, a strong majority of the surviving Progressives from the 1910s had become conservative opponents of New Deal economic planning.^[293]

Overviews

• Adelstein, Richard (2008). "Progressive Era". In Hamowy, Ronald (ed.). The Encyclopedia of Libertarianism. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage; Cato Institute. pp. 398–400. ISBN 978-1412965804.
• Baker, Paula. "Politics in the Gilded Age and Progressive Era." in The Oxford Handbook of American Political History (Oxford UP, 2020) pp. 115–134.
• Buenker, John D., John Chynoweth Burnham, and Robert Morse Crunden. Progressivism (Schenkman Books, 1977). online
• Buenker, John D., and Edward R. Kantowicz, eds. Historical dictionary of the Progressive Era, 1890–1920 (Greenwood, 1988). online
• Cocks, Catherine, Peter C. Holloran and Alan Lessoff. Historical Dictionary of the Progressive Era (2009)
• Diner, Steven J. A Very Different Age: Americans of the Progressive Era (1998)
• Flanagan, Maureen. America Reformed: Progressives and Progressivisms, 1890s–1920s (2007)
• Gould, Lewis L. America in the Progressive Era, 1890–1914 (2000)
• Gould Lewis L. ed., The Progressive Era (1974)
• Hays, Samuel P. The Response to Industrialism, 1885–1914 (1957),
• Hofstadter, Richard, The Age of Reform (1954), Pulitzer Prize
• Jensen, Richard. "Democracy, Republicanism and Efficiency: The Values of American Politics, 1885–1930," in Byron Shafer and Anthony Badger, eds, Contesting Democracy: Substance and Structure in American Political History, 1775–2000 (U of Kansas Press, 2001) pp. 149–180; online version
• Johnston, Robert D. "Re-Democratizing the Progressive Era: The Politics of Progressive Era Political Historiography" Journal of the Gilded Age and Progressive Er 1#1 (2002), pp. 68–92 online also online here
• Johnston, Robert D. "Influential Works About the Gilded Age and Progressive Era." in A Companion to the Gilded Age and Progressive Era (2017): 437–449. online
• Kennedy, David M. ed., Progressivism: The Critical Issues (1971), readings
• Kloppenberg, James T. Uncertain victory: social democracy and progressivism in European and American thought, 1870–1920 1986 online at ACLS e-books
• Lasch, Christopher. The True and Only Heaven: Progress and its Critics (1991)
• Lears, T. J. Jackson. Rebirth of a Nation: The Remaking of Modern America, 1877–1920 (2009) excerpt and text search
• Leuchtenburg, William E. "Progressivism and Imperialism: The Progressive Movement and American Foreign Policy, 1898–1916," The Mississippi Valley Historical Review, 39#3 (1952), pp. 483–504. JSTOR 1895006
• Link, William A. The Paradox of Southern Progressivism, 1880–1930 (1992) online
• Mann, Arthur. ed., The Progressive Era (1975) excerpts from scholars and from primary sources
• McGerr, Michael. A Fierce Discontent: The Rise and Fall of the Progressive Movement in America, 1870–1920 (2003) excerpt and text search
• McNeese, Tim, with Richard Jensen. The Gilded Age and Progressivism: 1891–1913 (Chelsea House, 2010) for middle schools
• Milkis, Sidney M., and Jerome M. Mileur. Progressivism and the New Democracy (1999), essays by scholars
• Mowry, George. The Era of Theodore Roosevelt and the Birth of Modern America, 1900–1912. (1954) scholarly survey of era online
• Painter, Nell Irvin. Standing at Armageddon: The United States, 1877–1919 (1987) excerpt and text search
• Piott, Steven L. American Reformers, 1870–1920: Progressives in Word and Deed (2006); examines 12 leading activists excerpt
• Piott, Steven L. Giving Voters a Voice: The Origins of the Initiative and Referendum in America (2003) online
• Postell, Joseph W. and Johnathan O'Neill, eds. Toward an American Conservatism: Constitutional Conservatism during the Progressive Era (2013)
• Rodgers, Daniel T. Atlantic Crossings: Social Politics in a Progressive Age (2000). stresses links with Europe online edition
• Rothbard, Murray. The Progressive Era (2017), libertarian economics; strong on voters
• Solty, Ingar. "Social Imperialism as Trasformismo: A Political Economy Case Study on the Progressive Era, the Federal Reserve Act, and the U.S.'s Entry into World War One, 1890–1917", in M. Lakitsch, Ed., Bellicose Entanglements 1914: The Great War as a Global War (LIT, 2015), pp. 91–121.
• Thelen, David P. "Social Tensions and the Origins of Progressivism", Journal of American History 56 (1969), 323–341
• Wiebe, Robert. The Search For Order, 1877–1920 (1967). online

Progressivism after 1917

• Chambers, Clarke. Seedtime of Reform: American Social Service and Social Action, 1918–1933 (U of Minnesota Press, 1963)
• Dawley, Alan. Changing the World: American Progressives in War and Revolution (2003) excerpt and text search
• Feinman, Ronald L. Twilight of Progressivism: The Western Republican Senators and the New Deal (Johns Hopkins University Press, 1981)
• Glad, Paul W. "Progressives and the Business Culture of the 1920s", Journal of American History, 53#1 (1966), pp. 75–89. JSTOR 1893931
• Jensen, Richard. "Democracy, Republicanism and Efficiency: The Values of American Politics, 1885–1930", in Byron Shafer and Anthony Badger, eds, Contesting Democracy: Substance and Structure in American Political History, 1775–2000 (U of Kansas Press, 2001) pp. 149–180; online version
• Lemons, J. Stanley. "The Sheppard–Towner act: Progressivism in the 1920s." Journal of American History 55.4 (1969): 776–786.
• Levy, David W., and Bruce Allen Murphy. "Preserving the Progressive Spirit in a Conservative Time: The Joint Reform Efforts of Justice Brandeis and Professor Frankfurter, 1916–1933." Michigan Law Review 78 (1979): 1252+ online.
• Link, Arthur. “What happened to the Progressive Movement in the 1920s?” American Historical Review 64#4 (1959), 833–851. online
• Link, William A. The Paradox of Southern Progressivism, 1880–1930 (1992) online
• Murphy, Kevin C. Uphill all the way: The fortunes of progressivism, 1919–1929 (PhD dissertation, Columbia University, 2013; ProQuest Dissertations Publishing, 2013. 3552093.) online.
• Putnam, Jackson K. “The Persistence of Progressivism in the 1920’s: The Case of California.” Pacific Historical Review 35#4 (1966), pp. 395–411. online
• Young, Jeremy C. The Age of Charisma: Leaders, Followers, and Emotions in American Society, 1870–1940 (2017) excerpt and text search
• Zieger, Robert H. "Labor, Progressivism, and Herbert Hoover in the 1920's." Wisconsin Magazine of History (1975): 196–208. online

Presidential politics

• Beale Howard K. Theodore Roosevelt and the Rise of America to World Power. (1956). online
• Brands, H.W. Theodore Roosevelt (2001), scholarly biography
• Clements, Kendrick A. The Presidency of Woodrow Wilson (1992).
• Coletta, Paolo. The Presidency of William Howard Taft (1990).
• Collin, Richard H. "Symbiosis versus Hegemony: New Directions in the Foreign Relations Historiography of Theodore Roosevelt and William Howard Taft." Diplomatic History 19.3 (1995): 473–497. online
• Cooper, John Milton The Warrior and the Priest: Woodrow Wilson and Theodore Roosevelt. (1983). online; a dual biography
• Cooper, John Milton Woodrow Wilson: A Biography (2009), a standard scholarly biography
• Dalton, Kathleen. "Changing interpretations of Theodore Roosevelt and the Progressive era." in Christopher M. Nichols and Nancy C. Unger, eds A Companion to the Gilded Age and Progressive Era (2017): 296–307.
• Edwards, Barry C. "Putting Hoover on the Map: Was the 31st President a Progressive." (1975). Congress & the Presidency 41#1 (2014) pp. 49–83
• Gould, Lewis L. The Presidency of Theodore Roosevelt (1991). Short scholarly biography; online
• Harbaugh, William Henry. Power and Responsibility The Life and Times of Theodore Roosevelt (1961), a standard scholarly biography emphasizing politics. online free
• Harrison, Robert. Congress, Progressive Reform, and the New American State (2004).
• Hofstadter, Richard. The American Political Tradition (1948), ch. 8–9–10.
• Kolko, Gabriel (1963). The Triumph of Conservatism: A Reinterpretation of American History, 1900–1916. New York, NY: The Free Press.
• Link, Arthur S. Woodrow Wilson and the Progressive Era, 1910–1917 (1972) a standard political history of the era online
• Lurie, Jonathan. William Howard Taft: The Travails of a Progressive Conservative (2011)
• Morris, Edmund Theodore Rex. (2001), biography of T. Roosevelt covers 1901–1909
• Moreno, Paul D. The American State from the Civil War to the New Deal: The Twilight of Constitutionalism and the Triumph of Progressivism (Cambridge UP, 2013).
• Mowry, George E. Theodore Roosevelt and the Progressive Movement. (1946). online free
• Murphy, William B. "The National Progressive Republican League and the Elusive Quest for Progressive Unity." Journal of the Gilded Age and Progressive Era 8.4 (2009): 515–543; it promoted La Follette in 1912.
• Pestritto, R.J. Woodrow Wilson and the Roots of Modern Liberalism. (2005).
• Rothbard, Murray N. The Progressive Era (2017), libertarian interpretation online excerpt
• Sanders, Elizabeth. Roots of Reform: Farmers, Workers and the American State, 1877–1917 (1999).
• Sarasohn, David. The Party of Reform: Democrats in the Progressive Era (UP of Mississippi, 1989).

State and local

• Abrams, Richard M. Conservatism in a Progressive Era: Massachusetts Politics 1900–1912. (Harvard UP, 1964) online
• Berman, David R. Governors and the Progressive Movement (University Press of Colorado, 2019) online.
• Buenker, John D. Urban Liberalism and Progressive Reform (1973).
• Buenker, John D. The History of Wisconsin, Vol. 4: The Progressive Era, 1893–1914 (1998).
• Buenker, John D., and Edward R. Kantowicz, eds. Historical dictionary of the Progressive Era, 1890–1920 (Greenwood, 1988). online good coverage of states and major cities.
• Cherny, Robert W. Populism, Progressivism, and the Transformation of Nebraska Politics, 1885–1915 (1981)
• Chrislock, Carl H. The Progressive Era in Minnesota, 1899–1918 (1971) online review.
• Connolly, James J. The Triumph of Ethnic Progressivism: Urban Political Culture in Boston, 1900–1925 (Harvard UP, 1998).
• Ebner, Michael H., and Eugene M. Tobin, eds. The Age of Urban Reform: New Perspectives on the Progressive Era (1977)
• Folsom, Burton W. "Tinkerers, tipplers, and traitors: ethnicity and democratic reform in Nebraska during the Progressive era." Pacific Historical Review 50.1 (1981): 53–75. online
• Gould, Lewis L. Progressives and Prohibitionists: Texas Democrats in the Wilson Era (1973)
• Grantham, Dewey W. "The Contours of Southern Progressivism." American Historical Review 86.5 (1981): 1035–1059.
• Grantham, Dewey W. Southern progressivism: The reconciliation of progress and tradition (U of Tennessee Press, 1983), a major scholarly history; covers every state and all major reforms.
• Griffith, Ernest S. A history of American city government: the progressive years and their aftermath 1900–1920 (Praeger, 1974), a major scholarly history covering every state.
• Huthmacher, J. Joseph. "Urban Liberalism and the Age of Reform" Mississippi Valley Historical Review 49 (1962): 231–241, JSTOR 1888628; emphasis on urban, ethnic, working class support for reform
• Johnston, Robert D. The Radical Middle Class: Populist Democracy and the Question of Capitalism in Progressive Era Portland, Oregon (2003)
• La Forte, Robert Sherman. Leaders of Reform: Progressive Republicans in Kansas, 1900–1916 (1974) online
• Liazos, Ariane. Reforming the City: The Contested Origins of Urban Government, 1890–1930 (Columbia University Press, 2020) excerpt, a major scholarly survey
• Link, Arthur S. Wilson: The Road to the White House vol 1 (1947) pp 93–308 on New Jersey politics. online
• Link, William A. The Paradox of Southern Progressivism, 1880–1930 (1992), a major scholarly study
• Laugen, R. Todd. The Gospel of Progressivism: Moral Reform and Labor War in Colorado, 1900–1930 (UP Colorado)
• Lubove, Roy. The Progressives and the Slums: Tenement House Reform in New York City, 1890–1917 (1974). online
• Lubove, Roy. Twentieth Century Pittsburgh Volume 1: Government, Business, and Environmental Change (1995) online
• McCormick, Richard L. From Realignment to Reform: Political Change in New York State, 1893–1910 (Cornell UP, 1981).
• Maxwell, Robert S. La Follette and the Rise of the Progressives in Wisconsin. Madison, Wis.: State Historical Society of Wisconsin, 1956.
• Miller, Worth Robert. "Building a Progressive Coalition in Texas: The Populist–Reform Democrat Rapprochement, 1900–1907." Journal of Southern History 52.2 (1986): 163–182. online
• Mowry, George E. The California Progressives (1951), focus on leadership
  • Mowry, George E. “The California Progressive and His Rationale: A Study in Middle Class Politics.” Mississippi Valley Historical Review 36#2 (1949), pp. 239–50. online
• Noble, Ransom E. New Jersey Progressivism Before Wilson. Princeton UP, 1946) online.
• Olin, Spencer C. California's Prodigal Sons: Hiram Johnson and the Progressives, 1911–1917 (U California Press, 1968).
• Pegram, Thomas R. Partisans and Progressives: Private Interest and Public Policy in Illinois, 1870–1922 (U of Illinois Press, 1992) online' also see online review.
• Piott, Steven L. Holy Joe: Joseph W. Folk and the Missouri Idea (U Missouri Press, 1997).
• Recchiuti, John Louis. Civic Engagement: Social Science and Progressive-Era Reform in New York City (2007).
• Reynolds, John F. Testing Democracy: Electoral Behavior and Progressive Reform in New Jersey, 1880–1920 (1988).
• Richter, Hedwig. "Transnational Reform and Democracy: Election Reforms in New York City and Berlin Around 19001." The Journal Of The Gilded Age And Progressive Era 15.2 (2016): 149–175. online
• Sealander, Judith. Grand plans: business progressivism and social change in Ohio's Miami Valley, 1890–1929 (1988) online
• Starr, Kevin. Inventing the dream: California through the progressive era (Oxford UP, 1986).
• Thelen, David. The New Citizenship, Origins of Progressivism in Wisconsin, 1885–1900 (1972) online review.
• Wallace, Mike. Greater Gotham: A history of New York City from 1898 to 1919 (Oxford UP, 2017).
• Warner, Hoyt Landon. Progressivism in Ohio 1897–1917 (1964) online review
• Wesser, Robert F. Charles Evans Hughes: Politics and Reform in New York, 1905–1910 (Cornell UP, 1967).
• Wesser, Robert F. A response to progressivism : the Democratic Party and New York politics, 1902–1918 (1986) online
• Wright, James. The Progressive Yankees: Republican Reformers in New Hampshire, 1906–1916 (1987)

Gender, ethnic, business, labor, religion

• Abell, Aaron I. American Catholicism and Social Action: A Search for Social Justice, 1865–1950 (1960).
• Bruce, Kyle and Chris Nyland. "Scientific Management, Institutionalism, and Business Stabilization: 1903–1923" Journal of Economic Issues, Vol. 35, 2001. JSTOR 4227725
• Campbell, Barbara Kuhn. "Prominent Women in the Progressive Era: A Study of Life Histories" (PhD dissertation, University of Illinois at Chicago ProQuest Dissertations Publishing, 1976. 7700270.
• Frankel, Noralee and Nancy S. Dye, eds. Gender, Class, Race, and Reform in the Progressive Era (1991).
• Galambos, Louis. The public image of big business in America, 1880-1940: a quantitative study in social change (JHU Press, 2019).
• Hahn, Steven. A Nation under Our Feet: Black Political Struggles in the Rural South from Slavery to the Great Migration (2003).
• Montgomery, David. The Fall of the House of Labor: The workplace, the state, and American labor activism, 1865–1925 (1987).
• Muncy, Robyn. Creating A Feminine Dominion in American Reform, 1890–1935 (1991).
• Stromquist, Shelton. Reinventing 'The People': The Progressive Movement, the Class Problem, and the Origins of Modern Liberalism, (U. of Illinois Press, 2006). ISBN 0-252-07269-3. online review
• Wiebe, Robert. "Business Disunity and the Progressive Movement, 1901–1914", Mississippi Valley Historical Review, 44#4 (1958), pp. 664–685. JSTOR 1886602

Primary sources

• Fink, Leon, ed. Major Problems in the Gilded Age and Progressive Era (1993) primary sources and scholarly essays.
• Groman, George L. ed. Political Literature of the Progressive Era (Michigan State UP, 1967)
• Eisenach, Eldon J. ed. The Social and Political Thought of American Progressivism (Hackett, 2006)
• Pease, Otis, ed. The Progressive Years: The Spirit and Achievement of American Reform (1962)
• Pestritto, Ronald J., and William J. Atto, eds. American Progressivism: A Reader (2008)
• Resek, Carl, ed. The Progressives (1967)
• Wilson, Woodrow. A Crossroads Of Freedom The 1912 Speeches Of Woodrow Wilson (1956) online