Essay On The Populist Movement

1967 Words8 Pages
Origins of Progressivism The Populist Movement committed political suicide by backing William Jennings Bryan, a Democrat, for president in the Election of 1896. Their revolt was not without results, though, because their ideas were picked up by the most successful political reform movement in all of US history. This next movement is known as Progressivism, and these reformers were so successful as to totally take over American politics in the 20th century. They were so successful that most modern Americans have never heard of them. They so altered American government as to become unnoticed. Their revolution was so profound as to create what all of us accept as normal. That is success indeed. We therefore turn our attention back to…show more content…
Wealthy businessmen who used to delight in living at city centers were convinced by their wives as the industrial age took hold to move away from factories. Not only did the factories belch smoke but the workers belched, too, and as more and more immigrants came from Southern and Eastern Europe, that cloud of air stank of garlic. The end results were an abandoning of wealthy neighborhoods and the creation of suburbs, especially as transportation improved. When wealthy citizens moved away from the cities, less attention was paid to crime and to repairing infrastructure. Slums were…show more content…
While the articles were filled with romanticism and even sentimentalism, they were written in a tone of complete objectivity designed to inflame the consciences of readers and to create a moral outcry. When readers felt that the outrage was their own, the publicity of this type of journalism spurred America to
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