In the late 19th century and early 20th century the Progressive Era was moving to reshape America. Progressivism was a political movement that encouraged the exposure of corruption in America in order to reshape it for the better. This time period became known for the social and political changes that occurred as a result of the Progressives. Progressivism ruled the country, changing the way Americans lived and how politics affected them. One of the main goals of the progressive movement was to use democracy to regulate government by exposing the corruption of government officials. Another area where progressives were moving for change was business. By the late nineteenth century many large businesses were corrupt, forming monopolies and large trusts that allowed them to circumvent the law and rake in obscene amounts of money. This gain included the poor treatment and even worse payment of the workers who worked day after day to earn the trusts' money. The Progressive Era brought attention to the corruption of these large monopolies, and with the exposure came laws to keep these trusts in check. The Sherman Anti-trust Act of 1890 was passed in an effort to dismantle large, corrupt trusts. Taking down these corrupt money-making machines became known as breaches of trust and formed a major part of President Teddy Roosevelt's career. Trust busting was an important part of the progressive movement and for the most part successful, taking down trusts like the great railroad magnate Northern Securities. However, progressives weren't just targeting trusts at the time. They also targeted social problems such as poverty and unsafe working conditions. The people who exposed these things to the public......half of the paper......go Tribune, May 21, 2006, accessed May 15, 2014, http://articles.chicagotribune.com/2006-05 -21/features/0605210414_1_upton-sinclair-trust-free/3.Holbrook, Stewart. The era of the Mughals. Garden City: Doubleday & Company, 1953. Reed, Lawrence. “Ideas and Consequences: Of Flesh and Myth.” The Freeman, 1994. Accessed April 23, 2014.Sinclair, Upton. The jungle. NY: Doubleday&Company, 1906.Sinclair, Upton. "What life means to me." Cosmopolitan, 1906. “Upton Sinclair's the Jungle: Muckraking the Meat-Packing Industry.” Foundation for Constitutional Rights 24, n. 1 (2008): 1. Accessed May 15, 2014. http://www.crf-usa.org/bill-of-rights-in-action/bria-24-1-b-upton-sinclairs-the-jungle - muckraking-the-meat-packing-industry.html.Whorton James, review of Pure Food: Securing the Pure Food and Drug Acts of 1906, by James Young, Book Reviews-Isis, 1995, 586-88