End of Progressivism-Emergence of Modern America?

By the end of Wilson's second term, battling over the League of Nations had left the president physically exhausted and broken. In 1920, Americans elected Republican Warren G. Harding as president. Harding campaigned on the promise of a "return to normalcy," by which he meant a return to conservative, pro-business government after the upheaval and reform of the Progressive Era and the war.

In some sense, Harding's election neatly marks the end of the Progressive Era. In other ways, however, progressivism endured. Many government officials from the Progressive Era would later play important roles in American politics, especially during Franklin D. Roosevelt's New Deal in the 1930s. Progressive reforms, ranging from the Pure Food and Drug Act to the direct election of senators, became permanent features of American politics.

Finally, the Progressive Era marked an important growth in the role of the federal government in citizens' lives, a role that would continue to grow during much of the twentieth century. So, even though the wave of reform efforts collectively known as the Progressive Era came to an end in 1920, in some larger sense progressivism cast a long-lasting shadow over American life.