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Article: Progressive Movement
- Article from:
- Dictionary of American History
- Author:
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PROGRESSIVE MOVEMENT
PROGRESSIVE MOVEMENT.
The Progressive movement of the early twentieth century was an effort to form a majority coalition from interest groups alienated by the economic policy of the governing Republican Party. These groups
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including farmers, a significantly immigrant working class, and middle-class consumers
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hoped to sustain the successes of American industry while spreading its benefits more widely. Both of the major parties, and several of the minor ones, were home to politicians who hoped to capture this coalition. This diverse movement gave rise to a strain of political thought called Progressivism, whose creators sought to adapt the decentralized ...