Progressive movement

Cultural  

1. A movement for reform that occurred roughly between 1900 and 1920. Progressives typically held that irresponsible actions by the rich were corrupting both public and private life. They called for measures such as trust busting, the regulation of railroads, provisions for the people to vote on laws themselves through referendum, the election of the Senate by the people rather than by state legislatures, and a graduated income tax (one in which higher tax rates are applied to higher incomes). The Progressives were able to get much of their program passed into law. Presidents Theodore Roosevelt and Woodrow Wilson were associated with the movement.

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Example Sentences

The Progressive movement began to gel, ushering in a new respect for expertise and technocratic skill.

From Salon • Aug. 19, 2025

Hine, then in his early 30s, was part of a growing Progressive movement that sought large-scale social and political reform following the collapse of post-Civil War Reconstruction and the explosion of the grasping Gilded Age.

From Los Angeles Times • May 5, 2025

The more elite-driven Progressive movement, coming as it did in the wake of the collapse of the Populist Party, was another.

From Seattle Times • Jan. 10, 2023

He characterized Warren’s political philosophy as similar to that of Louis Brandeis, the early-twentieth-century Supreme Court Justice and leader of the Progressive movement, who challenged corporate monopolies and fought for labor rights.

From The New Yorker • Jun. 14, 2019

What effect will this Progressive movement have upon party organization?

From History of the United States, Volume 6 by Andrews, Elisha Benjamin