The 1880s were the beginning of dramatic changes in the lives of Americans living in urban areas. As cities grew at astronomic rates, the population expanded in conjunction to the Second Industrial Revolution and rose to over 15 million people by 1900. The Second Industrial Revolution was distinctly different from the first Industrial Revolution in that “pure science played a major role in developing new industries,” including the development of “steel, chemicals, and electricity” (Horn, Rosenband and Smith 84). For the average American, such industrial expansion and massive population growth dramatically altered the way of life for city dwellers. Matters such as traffic, pollution, and sanitation-related health problems became everyday features of life. Mass transit entered into their lives in various forms, and new living communities referred to as the suburbs began to form around the city. The number of people who commuted from the suburbs into the city began to increase greatly. Much of this population increase was not only due to continuous migration of people from rural towns into the city, but also from a heavy flux of immigrants who came to America in the hopes of participating in the economic opportunities that seemed to abound in the States. Other immigrants also saw America as a country where they could be freed from political or dogmatic persecution. For the immigrant population, many of the neighborhoods that contained concentrated groups of immigrants would become cultural hubs that are preserved by many to this day.
The Populist and Progressive movements were both born out of the growing dissatisfaction of people with the way that the government was not properly handling the problems directly affecting its people. Direct election, women's right to vote, and secret ballots all became petitioning points for both these movements. The most significant difference between these two movements was that populism began to grow in the late 19th century when farmers sought out change in the way the economy was working, while the progressive movement began at the outset of the 20th century by the middle class who wanted to alter the way the political system was working. While the populist movement was a grass roots movement that intended to form a union that would be instrumental in the improvement of conditions for farmers and non-wealthy people, the progressive movement focused on the lack of fairness in the election system, the mistreatment of workers, women and children, and all forms of corruption in the government. The populist movement was strongly opposed by Theodore Roosevelt and Woodrow Wilson, while many capitalists adamantly opposed progressivism as a form of excessive government control in what should be a free market. In light of these two movements, the New Deal was the brainchild of Franklin D. Roosevelt, which sought out to promote relief for the economic system as well as bring reformation to wayward issues in industry, agriculture, finances, and many other areas within the government's scope of control. “The fight to save the banking system opened the Hundred Days [while] the fight to save the farmers opened the New Deal proper," and the New Deal was implemented largely in part to bring assistance and support to labor groups (Schlesinger 87). Despite his respectable amount of success in implementing the New Deal, Roosevelt dealt with opposition in the form of Huey Long, who was a senator from Louisiana and believed that Roosevelt was ultimately not taking enough action on behalf of the poor.
Works Cited
Horn, Jeff, Leonard N. Rosenband, and Merritt Roe Smith. Reconceptualizing the Industrial Revolution. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 2010. Print.
Schlesinger, Arthur M. The coming of the new deal. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1958. Print.
