How does Howard Zinn discuss the class struggles that become apparent during the Progressive Era in Chapter 13 of A People's History of the United...

Zinn takes time in the chapter to discuss the grievances that several groups have at the beginning of the 20th Century. These groups include unskilled workers, new immigrants, women, and African-Americans. Zinn goes into great detail about how these groups are responding to their place at the bottom of society. The first decade of the Twentieth Century saw an increase in strikes, most of them becoming violent at some point in time. Many at the...

Zinn takes time in the chapter to discuss the grievances that several groups have at the beginning of the 20th Century. These groups include unskilled workers, new immigrants, women, and African-Americans. Zinn goes into great detail about how these groups are responding to their place at the bottom of society. The first decade of the Twentieth Century saw an increase in strikes, most of them becoming violent at some point in time. Many at the bottom of society have turned to socialism, as it has become mainstreamed. The problems of society are now being reported by a group of journalists known as the muckrakers. The decade is one of overt class struggle.

Through this class struggle, the lower classes have turned to more radical organizations to fight the establishment. The Industrial Workers of the World (IWW), a more aggressive and inclusive labor union, has orchestrated strikes for unskilled laborers across the nation. Most of their activities become violent, through no fault of their own. African-Americans have organized themselves with the formation of the Urban League and the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People. Women are becoming more involved in the union movement and the fight for suffrage. The period between 1890 and the beginning of World War I was a very turbulent time on the domestic front in the United States.

While history books tell of a great reform movement that targeted the excesses of corporate America, Zinn sees the Progressive Movement differently. Zinn views Progressivism as the upper-class response in this struggle. In other words, the government, guided by the hand of corporate leadership, made reforms in an effort to stem the tide of socialism and radicalism in the United States. This was done to protect the capitalist system that made them wealthy. The hope was that a middle-class would be established to buffer the pressures being exerted on the upper-class, by the lower-class. In this way, business leadership actually became more powerful during the Progressive Era of reform.