Progressive Era. The Progressive Era takes its name from the Progressive party of 1912–1924 and from the general feeling both at the time and in subsequent histories that the early years of the twentieth century were focused on a coherent body of democratic reforms that changed important aspects of the American political system. Interpretations of the Progressive Era have undergone many changes. Autobiographies and early histories stressed the return to popular control over political actions and the gradual shift from local to state to national authority. The next generation stressed points of continuity between Progressive reforms and those of the New Deal Era in a ...