In the United States, the Progressive Era was a period of reform that began in America's urban regions from, approximately the 1890s and lasted through the 1920s, although some experts say it lasted from 1900 to 1920. Reformers sought change in labor and fiscal policies in different levels of government; initially it was successful at local level, and then it progressed to state and gradually national.

Many reforms dotted this era, including Prohibition with the 18th Amendment and women's suffrage through the Nineteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, both in 1920 as well as the initiation of the Income Tax with the Sixteenth Amendment and direct election of Senators with the Seventeenth Amendment. Muckrakers, a term given to the reaction-producing writers of the time period by President Theodore Roosevelt (1901-1909), were among some of the best examples of progressive reformers. Progressives shared a common belief in the ability of human nature to improve by bettering its living and working conditions.

Political rights such as Initiative, Referendum and Recall, all parts of the standard foundation of a fully democratic state, were all pioneered during the movement.

Other famous Progressives of the era were William Howard Taft, Woodrow Wilson and Robert M. La Follette, Sr.

In addition to the reforms listed above, college football underwent serious reformations during the Progressive Era. College athletics were under attack along with political corruption and industrial monopolies. This period of reform in U.S. history urged college football to change its rules to a less-violent, more-strategic gameplay.

Notable Progressive Laws

• Pure Food and Drug Act
• Hepburn Act
• Sixteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution
• Federal Reserve Act of 1913
• Federal Trade Commision Act of 1914
• Clayton Antitrust Act of 1914
• New York State Tenement House Act of 1901

Notable Progressive People

• Booker T. Washington
• Ida Tarbell
• Charlotte Perkins Gilman
• Theodore Roosevelt
• William Howard Taft
• Woodrow Wilson
• Lincoln Steffens
• Crystal Eastman
• Jane Addams
• Ellen Gates Starr
• John Dewey
• Thorstein Veblen
• William Allen White
• W.E.B DuBois

Related topics

• Haymarket Riot
• Pullman Strike
• Triangle Factory fire
• Ludlow Massacre
• Columbine Mine Massacre
• Trust-busting
• History of the United States (1865-1918)

External links

• Progressive Era History Resources
• XVII Progressivism and Reform - Encarta