Who were the Progressives? This question has been answered many different ways by many different historians. Historians have different perspectives on the Progressive Era. George Mowry’s, Gabriel Kolko’s, and James J Connolly’s perspective will be compared on who exactly were the Progressives.
George Mowry who wrote “Progressivism: Middle Class Disillusionment” defines who the Progressives were largely middle class individuals. With the higher authority coming from very wealthy and successful families. They were trying to to see through the to the industrial and unionists fronts. He explains that they were also very liberal, but irritated by the imperialism of the Republicans. They were also very intimidated by the politics of the Democrats. George states that the…show more content… Social centraism is is a political outlook or specific position that involves acceptance or support of a balance of a degree of social equality and a degree of social hierarchy, while opposing political changes which would result in a significant shift of society either strongly to the left or the right. Middle class progressivists were often poor at compermissing, and expressed many signs of racism and at some points very anti-individualism. When the rest of the society disregarded their reform they guarded their roles as ‘benidivent guardians” (Mowry 262) of their society. The Progressive movement did encourage social reform, but when pressured for some sort of stance they hid behind the corporation’s trusts for economic change.
Many historians believe in truth that the presidencies of Robert Taft and Theodore Roosevelt was an era of progressives. Kolko thinks that is a wrong designation; he believes that it was an era of conservation. Kolko decides to show in depth the decisions made by political leaders to show advocacy to the business giants such as the Rockefellers, the Morgans, and the Harrimans. Kolko explains ‘It is business control over politics (and by the business I mean
