today on the daily dose the progressive era after the excesses of the gilded age muckraking journalists began to expose waste political corruption and scandal at first on local levels but as the movement grew from 1896 to 1916 progressives trickled up into state and federal politics taking aim at problems caused by industrialization urbanization immigration and political corruption primarily driven by the american middle class reformers sought to expose and eradicate political machines and their crooked party bosses believing that a higher level of direct democracy would be the end result of their house cleaning measures progressives also went after corporate monopolies resulting in federal anti-trust laws that further leveled the playing field for legitimate competitors they also push for higher regulations over unscrupulous manufacturers leading to the formation of governmental oversight agencies such as the food and drug administration or fda but at their core progressives were visionaries for a more modern american society believing that scientific management practices known as taylorisms could be applied to the most glaring inefficiencies in american society and industry which soon made the stopwatch a symbol and watchword for industrial improvement many progressives supported the prohibition of alcohol mainly to strip the power of political bosses who operated out of saloons while others based their support on purely religious grounds a third main theme of the progressive era was women's suffrage since many felt that the female vote would bring a higher purity to american politics while a fourth theme shown a spotlight on the abuses of child labor progressives also transformed the social sciences by applying scientific methods to higher education replacing so-called amateur academics with research-oriented professors who published their findings in peer-reviewed journals and presses as the progressive era trickled up to the national level republican politicians like president teddy roosevelt introduced his square deal policies which promised fairness to the average american through trust busting regulating railroads and insisting on high standards in both the food and drug industries while establishing national parks and forests for the preservation of american natural resources democrats also promoted progressive policies under the administration of president woodrow wilson whose new freedom platform introduced predefined legislative initiatives at the start of his first term in office something no sitting president had ever done before stressing conservation bank reform tariff reductions and the regulation of trusts the progressive era ended under the weight of the first world war re-emerging in the new era of the roaring 20s until the stock market crash of 1929 and the start of the great depression making the progressive era a major turning point in the modernization of america and there you have it the progressive era today in the daily dose get your nerd on with the daily dose and if you enjoyed today's episode share the link with a friend or colleague so that they too can learn something new every day