Progressive Era

The Progressive Era was a period in U.S. history that lasted from the beginning of the twentieth century to about 1920, but the transformations initiated during that period have carried over into the twenty-first century. Aided by great changes in the U.S. economy, mass media, and political philosophy, progressives came to define an era and a movement. This was a time when the basic underpinnings of the U.S. economy, social structure, and governing institutions were called into question, and the leaders of the Progressive Era sought to redefine the notion of the U.S. community. It was during this era that many of the features of modern U.S. society and politics were born: party primaries, federal regulation of businesses, the environmental conservation movement, and the movement for women's rights. Progressivism viewed the U.S. community not as a collection of rugged individuals in widely separated, mostly rural communities, but as a larger whole, a community defined by nationalism, not localism. The turn away from the localism of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries set the Progressive Era apart, and its characteristics came to define twentiethcentury U.S. politics and society.