Summary Of The Progressive Era

Painter’s historical interpretation managed to grab a lot of attention to reconsider America’s virtue and vice in the Progressive Era. Nell Irvin Painter’s 1987 historical monograph, Standing at Armageddon The United States, 1877-1919, focused on the lives of many citizens concerned with positive characteristics of America. Nell began the monograph with an introduction with a sense of fear to readers by asking if the end is near. This might infer that people were standing near a place of judgment. By observing her general to specific structure and broad and controversial logic, Painter’s thesis of that Progressive Era in America was an era of recreating the ideas of economic equality, social injustices, and political reform through the citizen’s …show more content…
Throughout the structure of her explanation on the Progressive Era, Painter began the support with the prosperity of America. Painter’s reason to begin the Progressive Era with prosperity instead of the Progressive Era itself was to give knowledgeable background and analysis behind the Progressive Era. For example, Painter purposely included the growth of women and children workers in factories and mills in a span of 10 years. Not only general knowledge came to enhance readers’ understandings, but Painter focused on the prosperity in chapter 6 as well as the improvement of United States through new economic, political, and social reforms. While the structure contained the improvement of America as a whole, the prosperity chapter also revealed the corruption to readers so they would understand that changes needed to happen. For example, Painter specifically implemented horrible working conditions of miners through unfair economic treatment, and fatal injuries and several deaths. After showing this example, Painter cleverly didn’t reveal what reforms or laws changed this unfair treatment in the prosperity chapter. After