The Progressivism Movement In The 19th Century

Progressivism was a movement that started around the late 1800s. It was a social, political and economic reform that responded to the problems that arise from urbanization, immigration and industrialization and some of the goals was to promote moral improvement and protect social welfare. Leaders who took part in the movement felt that the dishonesty and corruption going on threatened the reforms and changes that were needed. To solve the problems faced by mainly the lower class, Jane Addams’ “Twenty Years at Hull House” and Lincoln Steffens’ “Tweed Days in St. Louis” wrote two articles that tried to bring about poverty and change what little rights the working class had. Progressivism began when people wanted to change the brutal system to one that was more …show more content…
Among the men and women who tried to improve the living conditions of residents was a woman named Jane Addams. She co-founded the Hull House in 1889 with Ellen Starr. The location of it was a run-down mansion at the center of an inner-city ward thick with sweatshops, factories and crowded tenements. The settlement house was founded three years after Stanton Coit established the first on New York’s Lower East Side and it provided things like kindergarten for children and clinics for the sick.
Jane Addams was one woman who took part in trying to make a difference. Her article “Twenty Years at Hull House” describes her efforts of the settlement houses and how they were an aid to people who were affected by the industrial and social problems that arise from the changes in the city. The poor and suffering were some of the people that she also