Overall, do you agree or disagree with the Zinn’s interpretation of the Progressive Era? (as ...

Zinn deals with this topic in the most detail in Chapter 13 of A People's History. Essentially, he argues that socialism reached a sort of high-water mark during the Progressive Era, owing largely to the many problems that had resulted from the rise of industrial capitalism, viewed by Zinn as utterly exploitative. Where Progressives attempted to enact reforms that would address many of these social ills, socialists (like Zinn himself) saw the problem as being rooted in capitalism itself. Zinn peppers his account with discussions of Socialist heroes like Eugene V. Debs, "Mother" Jones, and Helen Keller, and outlines the rise of radical unions such as the Industrial Workers of the World, who broke with powerful craft unions like the American Federation of Labor and took a leading role in many labor disputes during the period. Zinn shows that radicals, especially socialists, found allies among black workers, women, and especially the millions of immigrant workers. They all agree, Zinn claims, on one thing:


This claim, while betraying a rather flat analysis of the very nuanced Progressive movement, is fundamental to Zinn's interpretation of the period. While angry radicals challenged the very heart of industrial capitalism, alarmed businessmen turned to Progressive establishment politicians for protection. The price of this strategy was that they had to be willing to accept reforms. Progressive politicians, whether "honest reformers" like Bob La Follette or "disguised conservatives" like Theodore Roosevelt were mainly interested in fending off the threat represented by socialism and other forms of radicalism. According to Zinn, they wanted reform as a means of bringing about "class peace," and while he concedes that "ordinary people benefited to some extent" from Progressive reforms, he frames them as essentially conservative. He concludes his chapter with the violent miners' strike at Ludlow, Colorado in 1914, suggesting that this event demonstrates the extent to which the Progressives failed to defuse class conflict in the nation. Having failed through reform, he suggests, politicians would soon turn to war.

Hi there, very much a subjective question

The Progressive Era was a time of reform in the United States that flourished for around 30 years, from the 1890s to the 1920s. It was mainly brought about as an attempt to better society -to make life better for all Americans. It was considered to be very successful in some respects, and less successful in others.

Some of the main successes of this era include women's rights(especially for voting - women's suffrage was promoted by the Progressive movement); new, more democratic ways to elect Senate members; and new laws being passed that involved conservation, food and drug safety, and regulation of businesses (like the Interstate Commerce Act of 1887, or the Sherman Antitrust Act of 1890). The Progressive movement was also pro-science and very modernist, and highlighted some of society's main problems of the time (the muckrakers were especially important in this).

The main problems with the Progressive movement were that ineffectively ignored the rights of some people, especially black people, native Americans, and immigrants. Many people hold the view that the black and native American populations got little out of the Progressive Era, while most other people benefited fr omit quite a lot. The efforts to stop child labor were also not very successful. Also, because there were a number of different ways of thinking within the Progressive movement, somethings were not changed as effectively as they might have been with more united group.

An interesting website for this topic can be found here:

http://www.u-s-history.com/pages/h1061.html

Hope this helps, let me know if you have any other questions!