The Progressive Era changed the lives of all American citizens for the better. The Progressive Era had many people who were for change to make the future better and there were many people who did not want change. The people who didn't want change were people in power. The Progressive Era dealt with consumer safety, government corruption, conservation, prohibition, and women's rights in hopes of a better America. Consumer safety for example Upton Sinclair wrote a book called The Jungle to expose the Chicago meatpacking industry. This is a very scary thought for consumers to not know what they are eating. The book states that the meat contains feces, dead animals, and who knows what else has been done to the meat, and it is shipped to these people to buy and the people had no idea what they were actually eating. Once the book was published, health inspectors were sent to audit Chicago's meatpacking industry and found the book to be 100 percent correct. The sad thing is that the workers knew they were coming and didn't even try to change anything because people didn't think they were doing anything wrong. Letting the consumer know what they were eating and feeding their families protected the consumer and made them safer because the Chicago meat industry was shut down. Government corruption was really bad in the Progressive Era. Much of the corruption was due to the fact that many people in power were selfish and always wanted more. Those people would stop at nothing to get what they want and would trample on everyone to climb higher and higher on the totem pole. For example, Thomas Nast drew political cartoons about the exposed Tammany Hall and all the corruption that took place there. This was the world that... middle of paper... was a trying time for the middle class. All this seemed to change when reforms were introduced to continue improving the situation. So overall, the Progressive Era helped change America for the better. Part B. The progressive movement has made much progress toward achieving its goals in some areas. They have done a lot to clean up state and local governments from their perspective. In many places they introduced secret ballots. They achieved non-partisan, at-large elections in many cities. They have introduced surveys and initiatives in many states. They also managed to gain greater control of the national government. They did this by having the senators elected by the people. The Progressive Era marked the beginning of women gaining the right to vote. Food industries were safer and had guidelines that they had to comply with at some level. Natural resources were not wasted so badly.