At the commencement of the twentieth century, a period referred to as progressivism swept through America. Precisely, this era in American history began soon after the Spanish-American War and lasted until the beginning of World War I. At this point in history, America was in turmoil due to internal problems and was in dire need of social reforms. The progressive era was like a golden age for intellectuals who strived to create a nation where each citizen could be given a chance at success and involvement in the government. In the latter portion of the 1800's, America faced an economic depression and encountered problems with industrialization, urbanization, and immigration.
             Some progressives demanded that the government should be run directly by its people and that the quality of city life should be ameliorated through sanitation improvements, the abolition of child labor, and regulated working hours. America's utmost problem, however, proved to be the overwhelming power that trusts and big business held in the nation. This factor had a leading role in the development of the era of progressivism. In general, progressives agreed that trusts must be destroyed; however, there were different solutions among the progressives on the correct remedy to solve this problem. One ideology in the progressive era called the New Nationalism advocated for an increase of government involvement to regulate big businesses. The other ideology called the New Freedom, firmly believed the "big" in business was the threat to American society; therefore, the role of the government should be to break up trusts and monopolies. Whatever may have been the case, the progressives desired to attack any group of concentrated power to bring more accountability to the government of America. Although the progressives had good intentions to reform the nation, some historians, such as Richard M. Abrams, author of The Failure of Progressivism, believe the en...