Essay on The 1930s and the Roaring Twenties: Differing Historical Eras

Introduction

A historical era is a definite period outlined by historians because of their commonalities within that period they occurred or recorded. During the 1930s, there was a historical era characterized by depression of economy, poverty, and unemployment’s among American Citizens. Furthermore, during the roaring twenties, it was characterized by prosperity, technological innovations, progressive era, and social reforms from traditional values. However, there is disagreement among historians on the time frame of many periods of history. In the classification of historical eras, there is a Common Era of histories such as the Industrial Revolution, which lasted for many decades and non-common such as the Great Depression, which didn't last more than a decade.

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The historical era is divided into these three periods; the Ancient period between 3600 BC-500 AD. The middle phase between 500- 1500 AD and the modern era was between 1500 AD and the present day. Progressive era and social reform era are among the commonly known and documented periods in the history of man. The progressive era was noted during the late 19th and early 20th century and was marked by American social reforms (Gerstle & Gary, 1994). My goal in this paper is to analyze the progressive era and social reforms of the historical era.

Progressive Era

In the late 19th and early 20th century, the progressive reforms were to improve America's society and neutralize the industrialization outcome. These events in American history mark the progressive era. Political and social reforms were aimed at making American society better and improved from the 19th century. The reformers of the progressive era tried to connect the federal government power to remove unfair and unethical business practices and counter the adverse social outcome of industrialization and corruption (Robert et al., 1967). Progressive era strengthens the protection of consumers and workers.

Furthermore, women were allowed to participate in the election by voting. During this era, industrialization improved the lives of many in American society. However, it has disadvantages, corporate officials or "robber barons" practiced unfair unethical business to remove competition and make more profits. As a result, the immigrants working in the factories were subjected to poor living conditions and treated brutally. There was a massive gap between the have-nots and haves because political corruption practices only enrich the politicians.

The era comes into action due to the outcome of the industrialization. It sought to control private factories, protect consumers and workers, and bring corruption in big business and government to light, then bring improvement to society. The reformers include; Jane Adams, who formed Hull House Chicago, Ida Tarbell, who brought to light the corrupt business practices, and Theodore Roosevelt, who increase the central government power.

For example,” Pure Food and Drug Act of 1906, sixteenth Amendment creating federal income tax and seventeenth Amendment permitting the direct election of senators and Nineteen Amendment allowing women to participate in the election process.” The era also has the dark side, such as; policies that facilitated discrimination, prevention of migration, and the science of better breeding, the gap between classes.

Social Reforms

An American Philosopher by the name of Ralph Waldo was the leader of the social reform or transcendentalist. The era trust that all human beings were given birth as good people. The philosopher argues that if an individual becomes corrupt, it is a result of the community's institution that influenced them. Between the 1830s and 40s, many people respected the philosophy and worked to make America a better society. There was a significant reform movement in the antebellum era due to the Second Awakening and transcendentalist ( Giugni & Marco, 1998). Here is the social reform; the Temperance movement hunted to stop the consumption of alcohol. American Protestants welcomed this move, and during this period, there exist thousands of temperance societies at the local level.

During this era, alcohol was considered a threat to society and was blamed for more social challenges such as crime, poverty, suicide, and child abuse. The movement later got a link to anti-immigration gush and nativism due to the opposition they faced from Catholic immigrants from Germany and Ireland. The movement achievement is noted when the 18th Amendment in the American Constitution was prohibited in 1919. In early America, the education movement had limited schools outside Massachusetts, with children being taught by parents. In the 1830s, many people advocate for free education in America. In 1837, Massachusetts board of education was given to Horace Mann, who pursued non-religious schooling, and free education to all American Citizens by professional teachers who are well paid ( Church & Robert, 1974 ), For example, Oberlin College in Ohio at 1833 gave female chance to join coeducational college.

In the early 1700s, there was limited asylum and prisons in America. The reformers of social reform suggest that there was a better way to rehabilitate offenders than previous practices. In the 1830s, there was the introduction of lasting reforms such as prison library, reduced physical punishment, and literacy programs. Dorothea Dix establishes nursing corps in 1843 to keep the mentally challenged individuals. The prominent phase of social reform was the abolition movement. This was to finish the practice of slavery in America. Early with the finding of America nation, there was some attempt to end slavery, but it was not sufficient. By this time, the act of slavery had changed due to the fabulous wealth and cotton gin. South America viewed slavery as an evil and concentrated on enlarging the peculiar institution.

Comparison

The social reforms in the history of social movements have shaped the progressive era ideas between the 19th and 20th centuries. The achievement of the progressive era, such as political reconstruction, is equally applied to many social movements that aim to make America social and political order achieve liberty, opportunity, and equity for everyone. Progressive reform has always concentrated its energy against inequality and corruption since tradition. It was built from workers' movements of female suffering and the social gospel. The activist of these movements believed in the empowerment and equality of the least privileged in society. The idea was to install democracy in all American's life, and the government should safeguard the overall good from corrupt individuals or commercials. It challenges the government to eliminate its legal injustice and promote freedom to all citizens.

The center of progressive and social reforms is the strong ideology that individuals should not wait for the representative's transition. The citizens themselves can act as a catalyst for the transition they require. The social movement’s origin was working and middle-class individuals who had skills to reorganize others to risk for a better outcome. The activist of these reforms faced ridicule from people due to their nature of pushing others to danger. Political groups always try to despise the social activism moment who engage in a street demonstration to demand political equality and justice. Progressive reforms activists learned from the regulation of social reforms movement, and the progressive leaders were very reactive to the issues of gender and race. However, civil rights in the 20th century come from the progressive reforms movement, such as the right for women to participate in elections.

Biblical Worldview Analysis

Progressive era ideology and politics. The way the public viewed the progressive reformers was on specific assumptions. The first assumption was that human nature could be increased through uniform application of incentives, punishment, and regulation. Another assumption was that federal government power could be harness to improve individual and societal transformations. However, these assumptions were not agreed upon by the political conservations who believed that human nature could not be changed, and the federal government should limit the size. Progressive reforms have successfully assisted the approval of many legislation and Amendments in the American constitutions.

For example,” the Sixteen Amendment created federal income tax, Seventieth Amendment permitted the direct election of senate, Eighteenth Amendment prevents the selling of alcohol and the Nineteenth Amendment gave women right to participate in the election." Despite the new reforms, the era had some dark sides. The reforms have facilitated discrimination policies and intolerance thoughts. For example, Wilson's administration pursued racial agenda despite the acceptance of modernity. This period witnessed the Ku Klux Klan revival and fierce racist on black people against the political and economic gain of black people. Labour unions supported the prevention of immigrations and blamed them for low wages in the industries. For example, the Immigration Act of 1917 prevents the immigration of Asians. The view of human nature made many reformers support eugenics, which was considered the advancement of better breeding.

Social reform is seen as a positive reform of society, national, and time on a global scale. In the past, it was based on wealth and properties. The availability of this dictates the social class of an individual in society. However, most reforms were fought to bring transition into the community, such as opportunity and right to all individuals. The social reforms enable the Americans to have a voice in their society, and it gave all individuals the fundamental human right in society. Furthermore, it gave them a sense of importance and belonging in American society, such as the abolition of the 18th Amendment.

When social reform threatens the traditional and culture, some individuals are taken in the wrong way and resisted by governments and cooperation. As much has it has facilitated great transition, it still had the wrong side to society. Temperance movement, whose main aim was to fight consumptions of alcohol turn to be nativism and oppose the immigration of Catholic immigrants from Germany and Ireland. The institutions that were formed to treat individuals with mental illness used scary methods of treatments because most of the treatment was based on learning the mentally challenged individuals. One of the significant challenges in the north was to end the slave trade. They still practiced slavery due to the cotton gin, which made a lot of profit to the Cotton king.

Conclusion

They analyzed historical, social reforms, and the progressive era had a significant landscape in the development of equality and human rights. For instance, social reforms facilitated the abolition of slavery in America, the introduction of more rehabilitative measures in prison and asylum, and also the full spread of free education with professionals teachers. The progressive era marked an era of political and social reform in America. It harnesses the federal government's power to replace unfair and unethical trade practices to minimize corruption and the outcome of industrialization.

References

Church, Robert. 1974. Economists as Experts: The Rise of an Academic Profession in the United States, 1870–1920. In vol. 2 of The University in Society, edited by Lawrence Stone. Princeton: Princeton University Press.

Gerstle, Gary. 1994. The Protean Character of American Liberalism. American Historical Review 99.4:1043–73. https://www.webdepot.umontreal.ca/Usagers/ramirez/MonDepotPublic/HST3361%20G.%20Gerstle-_The_Protean_Character_of_American_Li...