This week, we are taking a look at the Progressives, a group of reformers, who wanted to change or reform the politics, economy, and social norms of the nineteenth-century.

This week, we are taking a look at the Progressives, a group of reformers, who wanted to change or reform the politics, economy, and social norms of the nineteenth-century. Unlike their Populist predecessors, Progressives were mostly middle-class city dwellers who believed that science should be applied to raise Americans’ standard of living. To be sure, the period was in direct response to the changing American landscape that took place due to the industrialization of the Gilded Age. As Robert H. Wiebe asserted, Progressives were “searching for order” to make sense of their changing world and believed that the way to obtain order was through government control. Just as the Populists looked to government for answers, so too, do the Progressives. After completing the assigned reading and watching the video, answer the following:

1-      Progressives were not composed of one single group. A number of different progressives with different goals existed. Name two of these groups and define their goals.

2-      How did race, class, and gender shape the limits of reform efforts?

3-      In what ways were the Progressives successful, and in what ways did they fail?

Jane Addams, “The Subjective Necessity for Social Settlements” (1892)

Eugene Debs, “How I Became a Socialist” (April, 1902)

Booker T. Washington & W.E.B. DuBois on Black Progress (1895, 1903)