AMSCO Historian Comparison SAQ 7.4

“According to the liberal view of the Progressive Era, the major political 
innovations of reform involved the equalization of political power through 
the primary, the direct election of public officials, and the initiative, 
referendum, and recall. . . . But they provided at best only an occasional 
and often incidental process of decision-making. Far more important in 
continuous, sustained, day-to-day processes of government were those 
innovations which centralized decision-making in the hands of fewer and 
fewer people.”
Samuel L. Hays, The Politics of Reform in Municipal 
Government in the Progressive Era, 1964 

“Progressivism owed much of its success to a distinctive method of reform. 
. . . They typically began by organizing voluntary associations, investigating 
a problem, gathering relevant facts, and analyzing them. From such analysis 
a proposed solution would emerge, be popularized through campaigns of 
education and moral suasion, and . . . to be taken over by some level of 
government as a public function. . . . These tactics were pioneered in many 
cases by women. . . . It fell to women to invent their own means to improve 
the world.”
Richard L. McCormick, Public Life in Industrial America, 
1877–1917, 1997

Briefly describe ONE major difference between Hays’ and 
McCormick’s historical interpretation of the Progressive Era.

Briefly explain how ONE specific historical event or development 
that is not explicitly mentioned in the excerpts could be used to 
support Hays’ interpretation of the Progressive Era.

Briefly explain how ONE specific historical event or development 
that is not explicitly mentioned in the excerpts could be used to 
support McCormick’s interpretation of the Progressive Era.