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

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

That early 20th century period also saw the dramatic growth in the Progressive movement and the increasing militancy and effectiveness of the American labor movement.

From Salon • Nov. 10, 2018

I explained to him that I thought the Progressive movement could hardly be regarded as a party, but that I believed its influence in liberalizing both of the old parties would be considerable.

From Under Four Administrations From Cleveland to Taft by Straus, Oscar S.