The Progressive Era is the name given to a period in US history that goes back from the 1890s to the 1920s.
It was an era of partial rupture with the laissez-faire and individualism of the previous period, marked by economic, political, social and moral reforms in response to the changes and problems brought about by the industrial revolution: the disappearance of a social life organized around small communities, instability resulting from the anarchic development of industry, commerce, business, big cities, agriculture, massive immigration from the south and east of Europe, escalation of the violence of social conflicts, upheavals caused by technological progress. The Supreme Court, however, consistently opposed any regulation of the economy or the labor market, declaring laws restricting child labor or introducing minimum wages as anti-constitutional: the so-called Lochner era of the Supreme Court, which lasted until the late 1930s.
Some key reforms, such as women's voting rights, date back to that time, but the era of progress did not benefit all US citizens, including minorities, and reforms did not always expected beneficial effects. Some policies, such as the Prohibition, were a resounding failure.
