Progressivism: A very short introduction

Abstract

Offers an overview of progressivism in America — its origins, guiding principles, major leaders and major accomplishments. Progressivism emerged as a response to the excesses of the Gilded Age, an era that plunged working Americans into poverty while a new class of ostentatious millionaires flaunted their wealth. As capitalism ran unchecked and more and more economic power was concentrated in fewer hands, a sense of social crisis was pervasive. This VSI shows that the progressives — with the glaring exception of race relations — shared a common conviction that society should be fair to all its members and that governments had a responsibility to see that fairness prevailed.