MCC History Practice Exam

Urban poverty and social reform were central to a reform movement at the turn of the 20th century aimed at fixing social ills through government action and social programs. This era mobilized reformers to improve living conditions in cities, regulate corporations, and expand protections for workers and families. It brought innovations like settlement houses, investigative journalism to expose corruption, and new laws addressing child labor, public health, and workplace safety. All of this points to a period defined by broad social and political reform—the Progressive Era. The Gilded Age focused more on rapid industrial growth and political corruption, the Civil War era centers on conflict and emancipation, and the Cold War era—though important in its own right—comes later and involves different global-and domestic-policy concerns.