Beginning with an extensive overview essay of the period, this book focuses on the issues of the Progressive Era through contemporary accounts of the people involved. Each issue is presented with an introductory essay and multiple primary documents from the newspapers of the day, which illustrate both sides of the debate. This is a perfect resource for students interested in the controversial and tumultuous changes America underwent during the Industrial Age and up to the start of World War I. With the death of southern reconstruction, Americans looked first westward and then abroad to fulfill their manifest destiny. Along the way, robber barons built railroads and oil trusts, populism burned across the prairies, currency went off the gold standard, immigrants poured into urban areas, and the United States won imperial outposts in Cuba and the Philippines. Beginning with an extensive overview essay of the period, this book focuses on the issues of the Progressive Era through contemporary accounts of the people involved. Each issue is presented with an introductory essay and multiple primary documents from the newspapers of the day, which illustrate both sides of the debate. This is a perfect resource for students interested in the controversial and tumultuous changes America underwent during the Industrial Age and up to the start of World War I.