John Muir and Progressivism, Essay Example

While breaking down the conventional intellectual separationsin the analysis to discover the working of Muir’s multiple and integrated discourse, the literary approach of close reading that might provide new insights into his work. Muir waxed lyrical about the mystic allure of unspoiled nature.
Muir later establishes the uniquely special John Muir Trail (JMT) through California’s Sierra Nevada Mountain range and the Yosemite Valley area ; he becomes a life-long advocate for protecting our national beauty and is a key voice in the creation of the U.S. National Park system.
He was also a conscientious objector and spent time in Canada during the Civil War to avoid all the killing.The contemporary America open the public creating a whole new type of urban exploration tourist, who seek out the unseen and off-limits parts of urban areas, usually tunnels, old ruins, alleged haunted house, and abandoned buildings (industrial archaeology) of note.

During the decades from 1890 to 1920 America experienced sweeping change in every area of politics, society, and culture.Amid these dizzying changes progressivism emerged. Progressives were reformers who undertook a multiplicity of efforts to alleviate dysfunctionalities that had accompanied America’s explosion of industrial growth, urbanization, and new ways of life.
The early historians of progressivism were progressives themselves. They saw progressivism as a democratic movement of ordinary Americans, determined to repossess the power of accrued by ruthless corporations, corrupt politicians, and misapplied wealth. The landmark work of this school of thought was Richard Hofstadter’s The Age of Reform (1955).
Most prominent progressives – from settlement house workers to municipal reformers to conservationists to trustbusters – had personally observed these changes and the problem they brought within their own lifetimes. As the 20th century approached, however, they found themselves confronting a world in which the individual – and even democracy itself – appeared to have been swallowed by a huge new economy and a new way of life.
Recent histories have made a welcome return to acknowledging the seriousness of the problems America faced during the progressive decades and the legitimacy of efforts made by progressive-minded people to solve them.