Ethics and Civics Historical Analysis (Signature Essay) The Populist and Progressive reformers of the late 19th and early 20th centuries brought about widespread changes to American politics, economics, and society. In this essay, we want you to consider the ethics and civics of these reformers and their policies. Who were these reformers and what motivated them? What methods did they use to further their goals through civic engagement? What ethical considerations did they make in pushing reforms? How successful were they in achieving these goals? HINT – DO NOT discuss one reform movement or reformer and then the next, that is NOT what this prompt is asking. What we want you to consider are the ethical motivations of the reformers, the civic engagements they pursued, and how American society responded to these reforming impulses (so are they successful in changing American life or not, do Americans of the time think these are ethical policies to pursue for the public good or do not middle-class people push back, etc.) Keep the focus on ethics/civics here. Note 1: Successful responses will consider a broad range of evidence in support of arguments. Take a few moments to consider how you would respond by making a list of both “ethics” and “civics” related to the policies and actions of the reformers and how the rest of society perceived these reforms. Be sure to have a mixture of big/broad ideas and specific/detailed evidence in your argument. Note 2: We DO NOT want summaries. Summaries will not earn a high grade. “A papers” utilize rule of three analysis (including strong rule of three thesis statements in the introduction and each paragraph of the body), specific and detailed historical facts as evidence, analysis instead of summary, consider change over time and historical geography (as necessary in response to the prompt), and properly cite both primary and secondary sources. Note 3:
