Video: The Progressive Era

National Association of Scholars

In the early 1900s, a wave of social activism and political reform dedicated to correcting the problems caused by industrialization, urbanization, and corruption spread across the United States. Sweeping reforms that still reverberate down to our lives today found their start in the Progressive Era.

What role did the idea of scientific management play in the Progressive Era? How successful were efforts to root out corruption in business and politics? The Progressive Era saw some of the most damaging social movements of the modern era emerge, including, most notably, eugenics. How did an idea such as that gain such widespread cache?

This webinar features Mark Wahlgren Summers, Professor of History at the University of Kentucky; Bradley C. S. Watson, Professor of Politics and Co-Director of the Center for Political and Economic Thought at Saint Vincent College; and Steven J. Diner, Professor of History at Rutgers University-Newark.

You may find a pdf with links to all of their books here.


Image: War Department, U.S. National Archives, Public Domain

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