The Progressive Era Essay

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The Progressive Era emerged in the United States from the late 19th century to the late 1920s. This was a time of progress that emerged due to the rapid rate of increase in urbanization and industrialization. In response to the rapid growth, the Progressive movement would begin to work to improve life in the United States. The movement was led by "progressives" who would work to make America a better and safer place to live. They would fight to improve the working conditions in factories and help clean the slums occupied by many immigrants from Southern and Eastern Europe, among many other things. The main goal of this generation was to make the world a safe place for democracy. This was shown in the United States with the passing of the 19th …show more content…

One of these schools was the school in the Hull House designed by Jane Addams. The Hull House was a settlement house that offered social services to the community and worked to improve the lives of people in the cities. One way it benefited the community was by ensuring that the immigrants would be able to live happy lives in America without being forced to assimilate into white culture. Jane Addams wanted the Hull House to be a bridge between European and American cultures, not to Americanize the kids. The Hull House would work with many different immigrants to create a new spinning method, to keep the earlier generation from feeling homesick, and to teach the new generations about their religions, languages, and political experiences. This document shows how some aspects of the Progressive Era are still seen as progressive in today's …show more content…

Eugenics is the study of how to arrange reproduction within a human population to increase the occurrence of heritable characteristics regarded as desirable. This belief that eugenics was not scientific was shown by a scientific article entitled "The Progress of Eugenics." In this article, biologists state that eugenics is not scientific because people will never know what traits will be desired in the future, and it is best to just let natural selection take its course. This is shown by biologist Huxley when he states that there is "no hope that mere human beings will ever possess enough intelligence to select the fittest." This shows that some aspects of the Progressive Era, such as the belief that eugenics was bad, were

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