...The Progressive Era, beginning in 1890 and ending in 1920, is a term used to describe society’s reactions to the rapid change occurring from industrialization in the United States. After the Civil War, the American standard of living grew and new industrial life came about. This meant that landowning and farming life lessened and more people began to work in factories. Work became more impersonal and Americans had no way to get out of the wage system. This unfamiliar system that developed became known as capitalism. Socially, capitalism focuses on the rights of individuals and rather than shadowing a specific structure within a society, people are expected to look out for themselves: self-interest. People are required to work for money; therefore, there is a large distinction between the rich and the poor. Economically, capitalism can be defined as “laissez faire” or free trade and focuses on the big companies owned by individuals and includes private sectors operating in a market. Politically, capitalism means no government intervention and denotes everyman for himself. A democracy is defined as a public sector and is a form of government in which people make choices. The idea of democracy associates with the principle of equality within a society and is an objective America attempts to maintain. During this progressive era of difficulty, America’s “democracy,” was not exercising its egalitarian ideals to its fullest capabilities, which was a direct result of the unfamiliar capitalist...
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...The Progressive Era and the New Deal The reforms that occurred during the Industrial era and urbanization of America were mostly included in the numerous reforms of the Progressive Era. The Progressive Era in America encouraged the ideals of equality and greater power granted to the working class. The many reform movements such as women’s suffrage, workers’ rights, and the formation of a consumer culture made up the Progressive Era and continue to support the ideals that the era once promoted. The Progressive Era represented a new way in which Americans viewed the world and how each and every person fit into the world. The roles of women, African-Americans, immigrants, and children in America were all reexamined with the intent of creating...
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...The progressive movement often oscillated between emphases on social justice, economic inequality, and political reorganization. Due to this, it is difficult to characterize the period with a singular defining trait. It is more constructive to analyze the era in terms of three major areas of reform. First, the progressive era focused on redefining the role of government, secondly, there was a push to counteract the negative effects of industrialization, and, finally, there was a movement to bridge the unequal aspects of society. The three pronged reform approach that progressives pursued led the nation through a moment of uncertainty, which prepared the United States to be more accommodated as a global power and a contributor to modern industrial...
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...power of the corporate form of business organization, by the subordination of the work-ethic bound up within the old proprietary and craft enterprise system, and by the increasing centrality of a growing proportion of low-income, unskilled, wage-earning classes in the nation’s economy and social structure.” NO: “Again and again, they acknowledged the existence of social disharmony more fully and frankly than had nineteenth-century Americans. Nearly every social and economic reform of the era was predicated on the progressive recognition that diverse cultural and occupational groups had conflicting interests, and that the responsibility for mitigating and adjusting those differences lay with the whole society, usually the government. Such recognition was one of the progressives’ most significant achievements. Indeed, it stands among the most important accomplishments of liberal reform in all of American history. For, by frankly acknowledging the existence of social disharmony, the progressives committed the twentieth-century United States to recognizing-and to lessening-the inevitable conflicts of a...
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...authority between the beginning of the U.S. Civil War and the end of the Civil Rights Era. As I am identifying and describing the U.S. federal expansion of authority I will have three context that are the importance of the developments in the United States which are political structures, social structures, and Economic structures. U.S. Federal Government Expansion of Authority During the Civil War there was an expansion of federal power. The first major expansion of federal government refused to allow confederate states of america which is also known as secession. After the federal government got rid of secession of states from the union but right after the war the Reconstruction Era saw opportunities to impose radical changes upon defeated southern states. The federal government guaranteed civil rights to all races, rather than state and local authorities make such decision. The second major expansion was the Progressive Era. This started as a social movement to help improve the lives and general conditions of americans, the movement used the government to increase such changes. In 1901 new regulations inspired by progressive philosophy began to be implemented. Then Five years later the Hepburn Act authorized the federal government to control railroad rates, the pure food, drug act, the Meat Inspection Act and many more Acts. The progressive also had a victory that was well known as the 19th Amendment, which gave suffrage...
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...Denise Pena The Gilded Age, a term coined by Mark Twain, was a period of massive growth for American industry. All though society in America seemed prosperous and wealthy in the surface, the core of society was actually ugly and corrupted. Some of the problems that rose upon the gilded age were social, political, and economic problems. Reforms to help solve these problems began during the progressive era. The United States experienced rapid industrialization following the civil war. The American economy had grown immensely with great financial and industrial titans such as Rockefeller, Vanderbilt, Carnegie, and Morgan. With the booming of the industrialization, many people started to move into cities to work in factory jobs, including many...
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...The U. S. Civil War and Civil Right Era Abstract This paper will contain information dated during the Civil War through the Civil Rights Era. Throughout this paper you will hear about the expansion of the U.S Federal government and the events of the Civil War, The Reconstruction Period, The Progressive Era, The Great Depression and The Civil Rights Era. The U. S. Civil War and Civil Right Era The Civil War is a war between organized groups within the same nation state or republic or less commonly between two countries created from a united nation. The Civil Right Era began in 1955. Another important factor of this particular era was the great depression. Throughout this paper you will hear about the events, trials and tribulations that transpired throughout this time frame. Through the expansion of the U.S Federal government are the events of the Civil War, the Reconstruction period, the Progressive Era, The Great Depression and the Civil Rights Era, which will also be discussed. The Civil War officially began on April 12, 1861, when confederate troops attacked Fort Sumter in Charleston Harbor. The bloodiest battle of the Civil War took place in Maryland on September 17, 1862, which was called the Battle of Antietam. This event caused Abraham Lincoln to announce abolish to slavery in the South, which became official in 1863. More men died in the Civil War than any other American conflict, and two-thirds of the dead perished from disease. (Facts, 2011)...
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...Gerardo Contreras Gene Lee Econ203 March 1 2013 Income Inequality in America Dissemination of income in America has been a major topic of study by many institutions as well as scholars. Statistics have been gathered from numerous sources, which show that the problem of income inequality has significantly risen since 1970. Income inequality was stabilized for many years. Although income inequality has increased amongst the elite countries in the world, America suffers from this problem the most. Research shows that cause of the wide gap in income inequality has not been decided by gender, which by the way has decreased in America in last twenty years. The Income inequality gap has also not been because of race, or the gap been amongst middle class and lower class, however it has increased. The main reason exists and lies amongst the middle class and highest wage earners, with the disparity being extra dangerous as an individual’s income increases. It is stated that upward redistribution can be held accountable for forty percent of the forecasted Social Security deficit in the following century. Research states that in 2011 it was established that the highest earning one percent of families multiplied about 275 percent after federal taxes and income transfers over a period of 28, compared to a gain of just fewer than 40 percent of the 60 percent in the middle of America's income distribution. Additional researchers found that the trend has continually been ongoing since...
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...In this paper, I will evaluate the inequality of the New Deal and Trickle Down theory and effects.. The massive economic gap between the rich and poor has grown overtime in the US. This is due to President Reagan's economic policy in the 1980s, it was known as Reaganomics. Or sometimes called the trickle down economics. An economic theory that provide benefits such as tax cuts on businesses, high-income earners, capital gains, and dividends for the wealthy. This led Multi-national corporations, Wall Street bankers, and the wealthy aristocrat gaining an enormous increase of wealth, while many Americans have experienced stagnant wages. President Lyndon Johnson has once said about trickle down effect, "Republicans [...] simply don't know...
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...Introduction by Heywood – ideology : 1. Perspective/lens 2. Shape the nature of political system 3. Cement An ideology is a more or less coherent set of ideas that provides the basis for organized political actions, whether this is intended to preserve, modify or overthrow the existing system of power. All ideologies therefore have the following features. They : A . offer an account of the existing order,usually in the form of a 'world view' B . advance a model of a desired future, a version of the 'good society' C . explain how political change can and should be brought about – how to get from a to b be able to explain the marxist concept of ideology p.6: First, ideology is about delusion and mystification: it perpetrates a false or mistaken view of the word, what Engels later referred to as 'false consciousness'. Second, ideology is linked to the class system. Marx believed that the distortion implicit in ideology stems from the fact that it reflects the interests and perspective on society of the ruling class. The ruling class is unwilling to recognize itself as an oppressor and, equally, is anxious to reconcile the oppressed to their oppression. Liberalism, which portrays rights that can only be exercised by the propertied and privileged as universal entitlements, is therefore the classic example of ideology. Third, ideology is a manifestation of power. In concealing the contradictions upon which capitalism, in common with all class societies, is based...
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...being treated equally. Although, in the current state of America it's at the most progressive time in the history of the nation, however, there is no denying in the fact there are borders for gender equality that is present. Throughout the passage of time, the growth of women entering the workforce has drastically expanded since the early twentieth-century. Along with the numerous of people from the Transgender community...
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...Final Paper Wealth Inequality in U.S. and Economic Efficiency Over the last decade, income inequality has become one of the most important issues in the U.S. and a subject of a lot of debate. There is a prevalent idea in the society that the wealth inequality in United States is currently at the highest level in the history after steadily raising for a number of decades. The financial crisis is said to have contributed to this significant gap between the top 1% and everybody else. People view it as an inherently negative thing, and fight hard to promote the equality and income redistribution. This paper examines the causes of inequality; the relationship between wealth inequality and economic growth and the hypothesis on how policy measures can be designed to mitigage the income disparity both in U.S. and in the rest of the world. The researh is based on the theory that inequality is an essential aspect of an efficient free market economy that adversely affects economic growth when in excess. When it comes to global wealth inequality, people often tend to accuse capitalism. In fact, the real laissez-faire capitalism doesn't exist anywhere on our planet. According to its definition, laissez faire is "an economic system in which transactions between private parties are free from intrusive government restrictions, tariffs, and subsidies, with only enough regulations to protect property rights." It has been previously proven free markets lead to the most efficient use of economic...
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...The United States of America. A name that is synonymous with rich history which is not always pleasant, triumph, losses, and power. Throughout history, there have been many different eras which included changes and wars for the common good of the land. Although some were unnecessary, others were necessary in order to bring the country together to what it is today. Of course, with these came political struggles to ensure a fair and successful system. With these struggles come economic factors as well as how it shapes the social structures of each state. The Civil War had the greatest impact of all. This was the deadliest time of all with many lives lost. The root of the conflict was slavery. The South depended greatly on slavery. According to Mcgraw “…a planter could expect one of his slaves to produce more than $78 worth of cotton- which meant that about 60 percent of the wealth produced by a slave’s labor was clear profit.” Needless to say, the work was hard and long and slaves were subjected to inhumane conditions and treatment at times. The Civil War put an end to slavery, destroying the aristocratic South. With the thirteenth amendment being passed in 1864 abolishing slavery, these slaves were integrated into society as free men. This essentially set the South into a state of poverty as plantations were brought to ruin due to lack of slaves and hands to do the work. This led to the government having to offer federal aid and assistance to rebuild even to this...
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...During Civil War Era America, the people of the United States were split over which of these fundamental ideas would restore the country to prosperity. The differences between the Union and the Confederacy caused this split over whether the equality of opportunity or protection of property would be more effective during the Reconstruction Era. After the Civil War, the thirteenth amendment officially abolished slavery and emancipated all slaves in the United States. Following the thirteenth amendment, the fourteenth guaranteed citizenship to all natural or naturalized Americans, and the fifteenth amendment gave people of color the right to vote. The passage of these amendments angered the South, who primarily believed in protection of property,...
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...Theodore Roosevelt once said, “I am in this cause with my whole heart and soul. I believe that the Progressive movement is making life a little easier for all our people; a movement to try to take the burdens off the men and especially the women and children of this country. I am absorbed in the success of that movement.” Theodore Roosevelt was elected president at the turn of the 20th century. Throughout his presidency, he was very involved in the Progressive Movement. The interpretation of the Progressive Movement has changed over time from the Gilded Age to a time of presidents working to put reforms into place; however, it does do justice to the issues of the late 1800s and early 1900s. The name of the Gilded Age comes from the idea of...
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