Custom essays on History

The history never was just the exposition of the different events. The integral part of historical science is the analysis of the reasons and stimulus of the historical events, and the role of some personalities in it. The beliefs, knowledge and values of scientist usually have a great influence on his approach to history. That is why the history can not be examined without the determined approach of the author. So far as different researches propose different interpretation of every historical event, every individual has to choose his own position and collect facts and analysis to prove it.
The most reasonable and appropriate approach for me is the acceptance of economics as the locomotive force for societal and political changes. On this evidence I’d like to discuss two social processes in the United States: the origin of Progressivism movement and the formation of gender-oriented social power.
Progressivism and its origin
In fact, progressivism is reform movement in the United States. It reached its height in the end of 19th century. Progressivism is the willing of some influential individuals to provide the social and political reforms and make the society more democratic, and more well-appointed. Historians have no single opinion regarding the nature of progressivism and its consequences. Polar opinions regarding its nature can be found in the title of the book “The Progressive Movement: Elitist or Democratic” by Francis Couvares. The last one compared the approaches of different historians to the progressivism. One group of researches claimed that progressivism was the democratic response to industrialization of the country, and the realization of necessary freedom for every individual against the growth of corporative power. Another group of historians considers the progressivism as the attempt of middle-class to obtain some social advantages in the new world. The third group of researches thinks that progressivism protected the interests of white Anglo-Saxon elite after its position was shook up with the number of nouveau riches after the Civil War. “Vernon L. Parrington, one of the best-known Progressive historians, saw Progressivism as a “democratic Renaissance” – a movement that roused the public to fight “plutocracy” and purify the “cesspools that were poisoning the national household” (Couvares 2009, 167)
Such approach could be considered as rather primitive and naïve. It is obvious that in every times there were people who wanted to save the existing order and those who tried to change it. The whole history of the United Stated of America after the Civil War is the history of opposition between conservatism and progressivism. The list of the politicians who aimed to social changes in different times could be the good evidence for this point of view. Speaking about the democratic nature of progressivism against the protection of elite interests, I’d like to mention that democratic forces can not act by themselves. Every social group, which wants to protect its interests, has to propose its representative or representatives for this. The paradox is that the representatives of social groups usually form the new powerful elite. Thus, every powerful individual who can be considered as the member of elite is the representative of some social group. Generally the struggle for power is the struggle for social influence of different social groups. The more power a group has at the moment, the more resist to changes it will demonstrate. The idea of progressive modernization the society in the United States belonged to people who wanted the limitation the power for dome social groups, too.
“If the government would make up its mind to require a good education for every child, it might save itself the trouble of providing one.
The books of Eric Foner and Robert Wheeler and others are the good illustration to this theory. Both books describe the struggle for power of some social groups that had no power before, for example, women or people of color. As the advocate of economic impact on the development of society I’d like to notice that the struggle for freedom and equal rights is the struggle for financial secure, because financial secure is the key factor of personal freedom in the USA.
The history of women power on the end of 19th – beginning of 20th centuries can be analyzed as the struggle for financial secure. With the development of industrialization and shift from the agricultural and trade economics the early capitalism the women labor came on demand. With the growth of working women number the social tension on gender discrimination grew also. The first woman associations appeared in the end of 19th century, and till the 30thies years of 20th century they achieved the great shifts in the social, civil and economical position of women in the United States.
It is obvious that every approach to history has its common sense; however the impact of contemporary society on the historical look can not be underestimated. In the age of globalization most of political changed at the end of 19th- beginning of the 20th century could be analyzed from the economic point of view.

 
Bibliography
“The Progressive Movement: Elitist or Democratic,” in Francis
Couvares, (New York, NY: Bedford/St. Martin’s, 2009): 165-206.
Eric Foner, Give Me Liberty: An American History, Volume 2
(New York, NY: W. W. Norton, 2nd Seagull Edition, 2009).
Wheeler Robert, Hartshorne Thomas, and Tebeau Mark. The Social
Fabric: American Life from the Civil War to the Present. Volume I (New York, NY: Prentice Hall, 2009; 11th edition)
Jensen, Richard. “Democracy, Republicanism and Efficiency: The
Values of American Politics, 1885-1930,” in Byron Shaferand Anthony Badger, eds, Contesting Democracy: Substance and Structure in American Political History, 1775-2000 (U of Kansas Press, 2001) pp 149-180