Yorktown University - Dr. Gregory M. Brown - The Progressives

During this era, America saw the beginnings of federal regulation of business through the regulatory commissions and antitrust laws, the income tax, the Federal Reserve Board, federal regulation of alcohol, drafting men to fight overseas, and more. The enactment of these policies in the same period is not an accident. All of them increased the role of government in society and were intended to do so, as the outcome of the rise of statist political philosophies across the Western world. Statist political ideas and movements, especially those of the egalitarian variety, gathered momentum in the period 1870-1900 and became strongest in the period from 1900 to World War I, challenging the Founders’ doctrine of limited government. This course will delve into the era’s history. Students will look at various types of Progressives, the growth of Progressive ideology, and its opposition to the philosophy of limited government.