From the late 19th century to the early 20th century, the Progressive Era was reshaping America. Progressivism was a political movement that encouraged exposing corruption in America in order to reshape it for the better. This period became known for the social and political changes that took place thanks to the progressives. Progressivism ruled the country, changing the way Americans lived and how politics affected them. One of the main goals of the progressive movement was to use democracy to regulate government by exposing corruption among public officials. Another area in which progressives worked for change was in business. By the end of the 19th century, many large businesses were corrupt, forming monopolies and large trusts that allowed them to circumvent the law and rake in obscene amounts of money. This money making included the poor treatment and even worse payment of workers who worked day in and day out to earn the trusts' money. The Progressive Era brought attention to the corruption of these large monopolies, and with this exposure, laws were passed to bring these trusts under control. The Sherman Anti-trust Act of 1890 was passed in an effort to dismantle large, corrupt trusts. Bringing down these corrupt machines to make money became known as "breaking the trust" and was a large part of President Teddy Roosevelt's career. The fight against the trust was an important part of the progressive movement and was largely successful, bringing down trusts such as the great railroad tycoon Northern Securities. But progressives weren't just targeting trusts at the time. They also target social issues such as poverty and unsafe working conditions. The people who exposed these things to the public...... middle of paper ...... go Tribune, May 21, 2006, accessed May 15, 2014, http://articles.chicagotribune.com/2006-05 -21/features/0605210414_1_upton-sinclair-trust-free/3.Holbrook, Stewart. The era of moguls. Garden City: Doubleday & Company, 1953. Reed, Lawrence. “Ideas and consequences: meat and myth.” » The Freeman, 1994. Accessed April 23, 2014. Sinclair, Upton. The jungle. NY: Doubleday & Company, 1906. Sinclair, Upton. “What life means to me.” Cosmopolitan, 1906. “Upton Sinclair’s the Jungle: Muckraking the Meat-Packing Industry.” Constitutional Rights Foundation 24, no. 1 (2008): 1. Accessed May 15, 2014. http://www.crf-usa.org/bill-of-rights-in-action/bria-24-1-b-upton-sinclairs-the-jungle -muckraking-the-meat-packing-industry.html.Whorton James, review of Pure Food: Securing the Pure Food and Drug Acts of 1906, by James Young, Book Reviews-Isis, 1995, 586-88