A Fierce Discontent is a book that talks about the Rise and fall of Progressive Movement in America. The progressive era was a period of social activism and political reform. The main goal of this group was to try to stop and change corruption in the American Government. Many activists joined efforts to reform local government, public education, medicine, finance, insurance, industry, railroads, churches, and many other areas. People like President Theodore Roosevelt, Carry Nation, and Jane Addams were just some of the few of the names of people of the time that had influences of change at that time. In the book A Fierce Discontent, Michael McGerr does an excellent job in explaining how this social movement started and ended and what they accomplished.
The Progressive Era was the time when middle class people wanted to stop corruption in the government, started fighting for equal rights, protesting was done, and interest groups were form. It was also the time when America started their modern development with large businesses, newly dominant cities, and an explosion of wealth. Middle-class Americans started their movement, because they wanted to change the class gap by attempting to remake society from bottom to top. It was the first time in America that people were not afraid to speak about family life, sex roles, race relations, morals, leisure pursuits, and politics. For a minute, it seemed as if the middle-class would cause a revolution. The middle class accomplished a lot of triumph. Some included the right to vote for women and women healthcare rights promoted by Jane Addams. From 1890 to 1910 when American soldiers were out fighting at war the reformers were able to banned alcohol and close down vice districts thanks to Carry Nation, a reformer who went in to bars with an axe and smashed bars in the fight to ban alcohol. After the war came to an end the progressive movement seemed to collapse as other issues arose like segregation, strikes, high...