HIS 204 Week 2 Paper- Progressive Presidents

Running Head: THE PROGRESSIVE PRESIDENTS 2 During the first twenty years of the twentieth century, Progressivism was very present and played a role in all aspects of life for people from the social to the political, th ...

Running Head: THE PROGRESSIVE PRESIDENTS 2 During the first twenty years of the twentieth century, Progressivism was very present and played a role in all aspects of life for people from the social to the political, there did not seem to be an area untouched by these Progressives. Progressives were people who sought to inspire new and stronger levels of government activism with the hopes that this would cause social and economic change for the better. Progressives were activists who truly believed that they could change society for the better and maybe even come close to a state of perfection. “They rallied against the political machines that were so dominant in the 19th century and hoped to replace them with stronger local governments, such as commissions and city managers” (Bowles, 2011). In the 1912 election, there were two front runners, Theodore Roosevelt and Woodrow Wilson who both were considered Progressive, in their own ways. While both Roosevelt and Wilson were considered Progressive, their attitudes towards Progressivism and how to achieve it differed, at least in theory. In this paper, I will compare and contrast Roosevelt and Wilson and uncover each president's political principles and beliefs and whether or not they followed through with what they promised on the campaign trail. I will also examine the essay “The Papers of Woodrow Wilson and the Interpretation of the Wilson Era” by Kendrick A. Clements and identify if this essay corresponds with what both presidents said and did during their campaigns and presidential runs. Theodore Roosevelt was born into a wealthy family and attended Harvard University where he studied biology. After college, he held political office at the city, state, and federal levels before becoming Vice President to President McKinley before he died. Theodore Roosevelt was a leader of the Republican party but became known as the “leader” of the Progressive party. Roosevelt even gave a speech entitled, “What is a Progressive?” in April of 1912. In this famous speech he was quoted as saying that, "A well-meaning man may vaguely think of himself as a Progressive without having even the faintest conception of what a Progressive is” (Roosevelt, 1912). Roosevelt had a very broad term and meaning of what it meant to be Progressive and he believed that anyone with intentions towards This study source was downloaded by 100000825931745 from CourseHero.com on 05-14-2021 19:51:07 GMT -05:00 https://www.coursehero.com/file/7838644/HIS-204-Week-2-Paper-Progressive-Presidents/ This study resource was shared via CourseHero.com Running Head: THE PROGRESSIVE PRESIDENTS 3 helping others could be considered Progressive. To Roosevelt, though, there were certain convictions that a Progressive had to have including, “sympathy for the common person, as well as imagination for how to improve their lives” (Roosevelt, 1912). The Progressive movement had several central themes such as activism, regulation, efficiency, and social justice. Roosevelt stood behind all of these principles and made changes during his presidency that indicated to the Progressives that he was strongly behind this movement. For example, Roosevelt helped the entire country with the progressive