The Progressive Era was a period of widespread social activism and political reform across the

United States that spanned the 1890s to the 1920s.[1] The main objectives of the Progressive
movement were addressing problems caused by industrialization, urbanization, immigration,
and political corruption. The movement primarily targeted political machines and their bosses. By
taking down these corrupt representatives in office, a further means of direct democracy would be
established. They also sought regulation of monopolies (trustbusting) and corporations
through antitrust laws, which were seen as a way to promote equal competition for the advantage of
legitimate competitors. They also advocated for new government roles and regulations, and new
agencies to carry out those roles, such as the FDA.
Many progressives supported prohibition of alcoholic beverages, ostensibly to destroy the political
power of local bosses based in saloons, but others out of a religious motivation.[2] Women's
suffrage was promoted to bring a "purer" female vote into the arena.[3] A third theme was building
an Efficiency Movement in every sector that could identify old ways that needed modernizing, and
bring to bear scientific, medical and engineering solutions; a key part of the efficiency movement
was scientific management, or "Taylorism". In Michael McGerr's book A Fierce Discontent, Jane
Addams stated that she believed in the necessity of "association" of stepping across the social
boundaries of industrial America.[4]
Many activists joined efforts to reform local government, public education, medicine, finance,
insurance, industry, railroads, churches, and many other areas. Progressives transformed,
professionalized and made "scientific" the social sciences, especially history,[5] economics,[6] and
political science.[7] In academic fields, the day of the amateur author gave way to the research
professor who published in the new scholarly journals and presses. The national political leaders
included Republicans Theodore Roosevelt, Robert M. La Follette Sr. and Charles Evans Hughes,
and Democrats William Jennings Bryan, Woodrow Wilson and Al Smith. Leaders of the movement
also existed far from presidential politics: Jane Addams, Grace Abbott, Edith Abbott and Sophonisba
Breckinridge were among the most influential non-governmental Progressive Era reformers.
Initially the movement operated chiefly at the local level, but later it expanded to the state and
national levels. Progressives drew support from the middle class, and supporters included many
lawyers, teachers, physicians, ministers, and business people.[8] Some Progressives strongly
supported scientific methods as applied to economics, government, industry, finance, medicine,
schooling, theology, education, and even the family. They closely followed advances underway at
the time in Western Europe[9] and adopted numerous policies, such as a major transformation of the
banking system by creating the Federal Reserve System in 1913[10] and the arrival of cooperative
banking in the US with the founding of its first credit union in 1908.[11] Reformers felt that old-
fashioned ways meant waste and inefficiency, and eagerly sought out the "one best system".[12][13]