Talk:Progressivism in the United States

Opening sentence focuses on historical progressivism without mention of modern 'new' progressivism

The statement that the progressive era "reached its height in the early 20th century" lacks nuances. Certainly it refers to historical progressivism, that of the late 19th century through 30's. However there have also been "modern" progressivist movements in the 60's/70's for example.

152.3.34.82 (talk) 20:33, 17 June 2019 (UTC)

Issue with citation #9

(Apologies if this is the wrong way to do this, literally just registered for this)

The line "and the elimination of supposedly corrupt black voters from the election booth.[9]" struck me as at odds with my understanding of the history of Progressivism in the US, so I tried to verify the citation using Google Books (imperfect, to be sure). I was only able to get full text of page 185, which appears to be the relevant quote: "Exclude the densely ignorant and the corrupt, including the whites of that class," for "the privilege of voting is not a natural right." That quote is attributed to William Calvin Oates, a man that appears to have no connection to Progressives. He is in fact identified as a Confederate officer and white supremacist who entered politics to try to stop "populist" movements in the state according to his article on Encyclopedia of Alabama (http://www.encyclopediaofalabama.org/). The EOA article on "populism in Alabama" doesn't make any explicit links to the Progressive Party of the early 20th century, but the "Populist party" supported farm workers and labor movement strikers. I can't verify the other two citations, but I'm dubious as to the citation's authenticity.

Bulletbait (talk) 04:06, 18 November 2014 (UTC)

It says, "[party chairman Robert J.] Lowe and [hero of the 1900 state convent Frank S.] White wanted to deprive all blacks of the franchise. If that meant eliminating a large number of whites, so be it. As reform-minded proto-progressives, they sought to produce honest elections and a qualified electorate." It seems a poor reference, but some progressives did view the things they way they did. And progressivism was not populism, even if they supported many of the same things. Nonetheless, I think it should be removed. TFD (talk) 04:55, 18 November 2014 (UTC)

Regarding footnote 9 = Michael Perman. Struggle for Mastery. On p 186 Perman states that in Alabama, 1901, the black belt whites wanted to be relieved of purchasing black votes to carry the election. "The delegates were quite serious" he adds. He mentions bribery of black voters in Arkansas (p 63) & Alabama (p177). On page 187, Perman notes the argument that buying votes corrupted young white men and the disfranchisement was seen as a reform. On page 223 regarding Virginia, "the drive for disfranchisement had been initiated by men who saw themselves as reformers, even progressives." On page 298, discussing Texas and Georgia, Perman says "in both states, disfranchisement was the weapon as well as the rallying cry in the fight for reform." the bottom line is that disfranchisement was used by the reform elements. I'll fix the page numbers. Rjensen (talk) 04:58, 18 November 2014 (UTC)

The source does not explicitly tie this to the progressive movement. But an article about the Progress Era in a book about Alabama does on pp. 206 ff.[1] TFD (talk) 05:30, 18 November 2014 (UTC)

Perman has a succinct summary in his more recent book: Michael Perman (2010). Pursuit of Unity: A Political History of the American South. Univ of North Carolina Press. p. 174. Rjensen (talk) 16:00, 18 November 2014 (UTC)

This entry needs lists of deceased and living progressive thinkers (like the American Conservatism page has) as well as lists of books

Some suggestions for deceased folks (in no particular order): Jerry Mander Lewis Mumford George Orwell John Steinbeck Sinclair Lewis Margaret Sanger Martin Luther King Jr Robert Kennedy

Some suggestions for living folks: James Galbraith (still alive?) Kwame Appiah Amy Guttman Robert Kennedy Jr.

These lists of people could be organized by profession too.

Dfnarvaez (talk) 04:11, 22 February 2017 (UTC)

Progressivism refers to four distinct political movements and it would be wrong to conflate them. Some of the people you list did not belong to any of them. (Orwell, Steinbeck, Lewis, King, Kennedy that I am sure of - and probably more.) People who were significant to progressivism should be mentioned in the article. Upton Sinclair for example is mentioned. There is also an article Modern liberalism in the United States that has a list. TFD (talk) 05:12, 22 February 2017 (UTC)