Progressive Movement Research Paper

The Progressive Movement/Reforms were very successful in not just raising awareness but also getting the laws and regulations changed in order to improve the lives of many of the lower class people living in the urban parts of town. As well as changing the lives of many children by giving them a chance to become educated and literate. From the help of writers Charles Dickens (Oliver Twist), Upton Sinclair (The Jungle), and Jacob Riis (How the Other Half Lives) to the United States president Theodore Roosevelt and the government, many people (primarily immigrants) could finally start their new lives America in pursue of that American Dream.
Due to the newly invented power-driven machines, hand labor was widely replaced in the United States from …show more content…
“ Upton Sinclair, The Jungle (1906). The meat packing industry in the late 1800s to 1900s was a key moment in U.S History because if it wasn’t for Sinclair and his fictional account of the conditions in which employees were working in at the meat plants, the U.S Food and Drug Administration wouldn’t exist! When he was offered money to write an article exposing the meat industry for the socialist magazine, The Appeal to Reason, Sinclair agreed and posed as a worker in a meat plant to gain a look into how exactly the conditions in which the employees were subjected to (Gilder Lehrman). The overlaying goal of The Jungle was to expose the horrors of the industry but the ultimate goal of Sinclair was to make America see how bad Capitalism really was, he wanted America to see how changing from a Capitalist nation to Socialist would benefit not only the employees but the nation in general (Shmoop). Although the citizens at the time didn’t see that underlying message, it did cause President Theodore Roosevelt to conduct his own investigation into the working conditions. After his investigation, Roosevelt stated that “the method of handling and preparing food products is uncleanly and dangerous to health.” (Gilder Lehrman) and it forced him and Congress create the administration that we now know as the Food & Drug Administration of the United States (FDA) in 1906. The Pure Food and Drug Act was also created and passed in 1906 which made it so that every food product has to be thoroughly inspected by the Federal government and also made it illegal to manufacture and sell altered drug products (U-S-History). The FDA has helped American people become stronger and healthier by

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