Progressive Era Dbq

The Progressive Era was an era of reform which lasted from 1890 to 1920. Reforms were put into action due to the increasingly horrible conditions of the middle and lower classes. It was an effort made to help the United States become safer and to improve the economy. Rapid industrialization and urbanization took place during this time in order to improve the economic conditions of the nation. Some of these problems included the spread of poverty, the exploitation of labor, the breakdown of democratic government caused by the emergence of political organizations, and a rapid movement toward financial and industrial attention. Industrialization and urbanization had many positive, as well as negative, social, economic, and political effects in the United States. Some social effects were overpopulation, the education of African Americans, and greater women's rights. Economic effects included reforms in business and in working conditions. Finally, political effects of the Progressive Era were greater citizen participation in state governments and the passing of the seventeenth amendment, which called for the direct election of senators.

A major reason for immigration was the vast amount of immigrants that were traveling into the United States. Immigrants came to the United States during the Industrial Era in search of improved lives. This led to a shift from rural areas to the urbanization of cities. In order to accommodate the rapidly increasing population in the cities, slums and tenement houses were built. This overpopulation caused many problems for the lower class citizens. Jacob Riis, author of How the Other Half Live, stated that about three-fourths of Ney York's population lived in tenements in 1890. He also went on to deduce that the conditions in these small tenements led to a rise in crime (Doc 1). Another social effect of industrialization was the westernization of African Americans. Racial discrimination in the large cities of the nation held African Americans back from getting an education. W.E.B Du Bois suggested that the small educated segment of the African American race should become the leaders among their people in order to make their race more civilized (Doc 2). Industrialization helped to make this possible by providing higher education to Native Americans. Not only were the Native Americans gaining rights, but also women had begun to raise their voices for more participation in society. As a result of social and economic change, many women had entered public life as workers and reformers. Domestic work became very popular among unskilled workers and seventy percent of all women employed in 1870 were servants (OI). Then, the National American Woman Suffrage Association came about and women started taking the lead in many social issues. Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton were leading proponents of women's suffrage, which is the right to vote. Florence Kelley served a major role in society as a reformer who became an advocate for improving the lives of women and children. Finally,