Progressive Era Dbq

In order to combat the abuse that workers and consumers were suffering at corporate hands, reformers known as progressives revolutionized American society to improve urban life, expand democracy, and even protect environmental rights. During this time in America right after the Industrial Revolution, there were still many issues that the common people faced every day. Workers were mistreated and underpaid, children were forced to work, trusts and monopolies formed to hold power over the people, and the trust of consumers was abused. However, because the economy was booming and cities were so filled with life, these huge negatives were overlooked. The government and big businesses gazed across America wearing rose-tinted glasses. However, the biggest issue, in my opinion, was tackled with the help of American author, Upton Sinclair, the subject of document D. …show more content…
Going off of document A, under Theodore Roosevelt, a very progressive president, rainforests were more protected. Around the same time, and, according to document C, women were given the right to vote. All the while, child-intensive labor and abuse of employees was exposed across America’s gleaming cities. Generally speaking, life was improving for nearly everyone, which is a huge positive.
Sinclair’s exposé on the atrocity that was the meat-packing industry assisted in revolutionizing the industry, improving the health of American citizens, and, in a way, helped workers get paid fairly. During the Progressive Era, workers just weren’t paid enough to care about quality assurance in their employers product, how could they? They were barely getting by even when working their lives away, so why would they take the time to further assist the people putting them in such a position? Well, industrial life would have gone on like this for even longed without Sinclair, and here’s