Political Cartoons Illustrating Progressivism and the Election of 1912 Background The Progressive Era, as the period in history at the turn of the 20th century has come to be known, was a time of tremendous social, economic, and political changes, and the presidential election of 1912 typified the reform spirit of the period. Beginning in the late 1800s with the challenge to the "spoils system" of machine politics, progressivism gathered momentum between 1900 and 1916, as the desire for reform p