The Victorian Ideas Of The Progressive Movement
Progressives have always been rather varied, they included young female workers, corporate reformers, as well as segregationists. As stated by Leah S. Glaser, “Progressivism, a misnomer to some; after all, what was necessarily “progressive” about the electric chair or segregation” (Glaser, Leah S, virginia.edu). Yet segregation was still viewed as progressive and a safety precaution by many progressives in the north and south.
As stated by Leah S. Glaser, “the reformers responded mostly to the advancement of new technology, and the emergence out of the industrial economy or urban and corporate dominance, the availability of natural resources as a result of western expansion, the rise of a labor class, and, finally, the loss of middle-class …show more content…
Progressives thought of society as a whole instead of seeing everyone as individuals. These ideas, backed by the new field of sociology and the fairly recent professionalization of medicine and the social sciences.
Progressives believed that freedom was not a right, it was something that the state had to provide for you. Freedom to a progressive was something that you had to earn, they did not believe that all humans were born with unalienable rights as the founders suggested.
The progressive movement as a whole lasted for 30 years, during this time progressives took part in many different changes. They took a crusade against alcohol, which they believed to have very negative effects on society as a whole. Most social Darwinists saw the gutter as a fitting place for a drunk; only the reformers saw the drunk as a part of a larger system, the progressives instead targeted the saloons, businesses, and laws that helped lead him off the right path. They saw alcoholism as a disease, something that was beyond the moral control of the average citizen. For a while, the belief that alcohol should disappear came to fruition, however after the prohibition of alcohol changed nothing besides making crime go up drastically. This forced the government to repeal the alcohol
As stated by Leah S. Glaser, “the reformers responded mostly to the advancement of new technology, and the emergence out of the industrial economy or urban and corporate dominance, the availability of natural resources as a result of western expansion, the rise of a labor class, and, finally, the loss of middle-class …show more content…
Progressives thought of society as a whole instead of seeing everyone as individuals. These ideas, backed by the new field of sociology and the fairly recent professionalization of medicine and the social sciences.
Progressives believed that freedom was not a right, it was something that the state had to provide for you. Freedom to a progressive was something that you had to earn, they did not believe that all humans were born with unalienable rights as the founders suggested.
The progressive movement as a whole lasted for 30 years, during this time progressives took part in many different changes. They took a crusade against alcohol, which they believed to have very negative effects on society as a whole. Most social Darwinists saw the gutter as a fitting place for a drunk; only the reformers saw the drunk as a part of a larger system, the progressives instead targeted the saloons, businesses, and laws that helped lead him off the right path. They saw alcoholism as a disease, something that was beyond the moral control of the average citizen. For a while, the belief that alcohol should disappear came to fruition, however after the prohibition of alcohol changed nothing besides making crime go up drastically. This forced the government to repeal the alcohol