LANGUAGE IN INDIA

Strength for Today and Bright Hope for Tomorrow

Volume 14:5 May 2014
ISSN 1930-2940

Managing Editor: M. S. Thirumalai, Ph.D.
Editors: B. Mallikarjun, Ph.D.
         Sam Mohanlal, Ph.D.
         B. A. Sharada, Ph.D.
         A. R. Fatihi, Ph.D.
         Lakhan Gusain, Ph.D.
         Jennifer Marie Bayer, Ph.D.
         S. M. Ravichandran, Ph.D.
         G. Baskaran, Ph.D.
         L. Ramamoorthy, Ph.D.
         C. Subburaman, Ph.D. (Economics)
Assistant Managing Editor: Swarna Thirumalai, M.A.

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Historiography: The Progressive Era of the United States

Selvi Bunce

Abstract

This article discusses what is meant by progressivism. The paper focuses on various viewpoints of progressivism in the United States and presents some of the salient features of the Progressive Era of the United States.

Who is a Progressive Person?

As a noun, the term progressive means “a person who is progressive or who favors progress or reform, especially in political matters” (http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/progressive?s=t). As an adjective, it generally means “1. favoring or advocating progress, change, improvement, or reform, as opposed to wishing to maintain things as they are, especially in political matters: a progressive mayor. 2. making progress toward better conditions; employing or advocating more enlightened or liberal ideas, new or experimental methods, etc.” (http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/progressive?s=t) The term progressive is widely used and is very popular in political gatherings and alliances in many developing nations. For example, the political alliance led by the Indian National Congress in India is named United Progressive Alliance. At present in these developing nations, term progressive has socialist/let political connotations. A study of progressivism in the United States will help us to understand the trends of progressivism, and the similarities and differences as practiced and assumed in other nations.

Progressivism in USA – Critical Views

The Progressive Era is not by any means one of the few under-studied eras of American history. On the contrary, the Progressive Era has been looked at multiple times from multiple viewpoints. Joseph Huthmacher, in his essay “Urban Liberalism and the Act of Reform”, describes progressivism as a reform movement oriented to benefit urban workers. George Mowry, in his excerpt “Progressivism: Middle Class Disillusionment” maintains that the middle class was the cause of the Progressive Era. Though their views are different their writing is similar in that both authors use a limited number of statistics and rely heavily on inferences about class culture and belief. Magnanimously different from both these authors, Gabriel Kolko holds that not the majority, but big business actually ran the Progressive Era for their personal benefit. In his book The Triumph of Conservatism Kolko repeatedly states that it was big business that caused change in America during this time, and he backs this up with many examples. Yet, as always whenever history is involved, no interpretation is perfect.

This is only the beginning part of the article. PLEASE CLICK HERE TO READ THE ENTIRE ARTICLE IN PRINTER-FRIENDLY VERSION.

Selvi Bunce
C/o Language in India
languageinindiaUSA@gmail.com
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