A Very Different Age - Americans of the Progressive Era Essay

A Very Different Age - Americans of the Progressive Era - Essay ExampleDuring this era, the American society experienced assorted changes socially, economically and politically. The bulk of the book deals with how American people felt during the revolution and to what extent their lives changed.The book focuses on society as a whole, and does not emphasize on a particular person or event alone, there was a lot of struggle and opposition between people, as Diner writes supporting increasingly in an interdependent society comprised of large institutions, individual Americans made numerous choices and competed with each other as never before to control their lives( 3).A very different age narrates the efforts of and lives of different groups of people during the progressive era, including, businessmen and industrial workers, small businessmen and big businessmen, industrial workers and farmers, European immigrants and African migrants, essence(a) class women and men, industrial wor kers and middle class workers, businessmen and professionals.The reform included the growth of labour unions joined more often than not by businessmen(47), but these unions remove the African Americans, women joined the workforce, immigrants accepted low paid jobs for the sake of improving their overall status, they were mostly employed in factories and mills. Inhabitants of America felt superior to the immigrants farmers mostly had to depend on the vague capitalist system to earn a respectable income, African American had to fight for their rights to freedom, most of them flee the country, but it was the middle class that appeared to be the most powerful during the progressive era.According to Diner, despite the progress, there were many setbacks that occurred during the revolutionary era. Thousands of Americans still lived in poverty African Americans struggled for their identity element and racism (125) existed.The writer skillfully includes the work of many historians in his book he praises some of the reformers of the time but criticizes many renowned progressives like sack Roosevelt (229) and Woodrow Wilson (219) who worked for their selfish motives instead of bringing change, Diner disparagingly asserts that progressives, like other Americans, joined a contest for control under rules set by industrial capitalismThe author explains in his book that the historians(199) believe that the political behaviour of many Americans during the progressive era changed widely as fewer votes were cast and citizens no longer remained linked to their political parties as strict laws prevented them to cast votes. Furthermore, many social historians believed that common people were victims of intolerance and inequality, and there were many people who confront the harsh circumstances bravely and travelled from place to place in search of better jobs. People who left were mostly farmers and industrial workers, whereas, most of the urban came to America and urban populat ion in South increased by 900,000(131), Midwestern farmers children went further west to buy more lands and African Americans moved to homespun areas. A diner is of the view that the progressive period though brought many gains but it at the same time ruined the lives of many.The Industrial Revolution had a different impact on different people with its many accomplishments, it also created problems for many people. The revolution affected womens lives most negatively and their lifestyle changed significantly.