Progressive Era

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Intro In the wake of the First World War, the United States of America experienced significant changes in society, government, and the armed forces. Before World War I, the United States underwent multiple variations of reform in several areas. Numerous groups created labor unions to make the work force more suitable for the workers and government officials promoted change in the government in order to restore or establish balance between industry and the government. During the Progressive Era which preceded World War I, regulation of industry, banking, and the application of child labor laws occurred. The country underwent a great deal of change before the involvement of the United States in World War I.
Preparedness
The state of preparedness …show more content…

Sadly, these efforts were in vain; if participation in the military served as a rite of passage out of slavery, it would not have existed during World War I (Wynn 170). The military illustrated segregation and derogatory treatment of African Americans just as the rest of the country. They basically possessed no more rights in the military than in any other place in the country. While African Americans continued their struggle for equal treatment with the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), women, specifically Caucasian women, attempted to gain suffrage rights in the …show more content…

In the government’s attempts to restrain resistance to the war it began taking and suppressing civil liberties. For example the government enacted the Espionage Act of 1917, which granted the government the necessary means to deal with “the man who …cries for peace, or belittles our efforts to win the war (Brinkley 618)”. It castigated people even vaguely accused of spying or “obstruction of the war effort”. In addition, laws like the Sabotage Act and the Sedition Act of 1918 were enforced to further discourage those opposed to the war by making it illegal to express publicly their disapproval of the war, a clear suppression of freedom of speech, right to protest, and freedom of press. These laws in addition to the propaganda regularly released by the Committee on Public Information created a paranoid society of people that spied on their neighbors and families. This was an effective tactic

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