The progressive era took place under different presidents, and every president had some reforms that would make the Society of America better. In some cases, there are similarities in both the new dealers and the progressives. It is evident that many of the new deal leaders drew their inspirations from the progressive leaders on how to reallocate the economic and political sectors of America (Ferguson 89).
One of the similarities of the progressives and the new dealers is that they both had the same goal to ensure that there is social justice, security and to preserve democracy to the people of America. However, the new deal was not a continuation of the progressive era. This is because Franklin Roosevelt, who focused on the new deal, diverged from the vision of the progressives as he made America be a state of pluralism instead of the idea of the progressives to assimilate the national identity (Schrepfer 170).
The other similarity is that in both periods, the leaders were inspired by the economic depression that was present. There was economic dislocation that resulted after that the end of the great depression in the year 1893. The progressives had established reforms that would facilitate government’s intervention in the economy while the new dealers ensured that their reforms prevented economic uncertainty.
Source: museumca.org
The above picture contains two of the most significant leaders in the progressive era - Roosevelt and Johnson. It was during a presidential election of 1912.
Source: Gwu.edu.
The picture above is of a child working, and this resulted to some of the progressive era reforms to be stopped by the Supreme Court of America because they did not comply with the rights of children.
The progressives and the new dealers sought to reform American capitalism. They believed that it was possible to reconcile capitalism with the social justice. Both leaders in those periods believed that it was possible for the government to speed social improvements.
The time difference between the two periods made the new dealers come up with better reforms than that of the progressives. The new dealers ensured that they had improved some of the progressive’s reforms that did not meet the expectation of the people. The inability of the progressives not restoring the economic to its required state made the new dealers formulate better reforms (Ferguson 89).
Work Cited
Ferguson, Karen. Black Politics in New Deal Atlanta. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina
Press, 2002. Print.
Gwu.edu. "The Progressive Era (1890 - 1920)". Gwu.edu. N.p., 2016. Web. 15 Mar. 2016.
Museumca.org. "Progressive Era: 1890–1920S: Progressive Political Reform | Picture This".
Picturethis.museumca.org. N.p., 2016. Web. 15 Mar. 2016.
Schrepfer, Susan R. The Fight to Save the Redwoods: A History of Environmental Reform,
1917-1978. Madison, Wis: University of Wisconsin Press, 1983. Internet resource.
