Beginning of Essay
was a political response to industrialization and its social by-products: immigration, urban growth, the concentration of corporate power, and widening of class divisions. It was in most cases distinct from populism, the reform movement that preceded it. Where ....

Middle of Essay
.... schemes for reforming the structure of government, especially at the municipal level. Some reformers, viewing immigration, urban immortality, and incipient social disorder as the central problems, fought for immigration restriction, the abolition of prostitution and saloons, and other social-control strategies. Like the movement itself, the progressives comprised a diverse lot, aligned in shifting coalitions that might unite on one issue, then divide on another. The native-born Protestant middle class, including the new white-collar professionals, was certainly central, but on issues affecting the welfare of factory workers and slum dwellers, the ur ....