Which movement sought to end political corruption and regulate big business during the early 1900s?

• A. The Progressive Era.
• B. The Populist Movement.
• C. The Reconstruction.
• D. The Lost Generation.

Answer: (A)

The main idea being tested is a period of reform aimed at cleaning up politics and reigning in big business in the United States as the nation industrialized. This movement, known as the Progressive Era, emerged in the late 19th and early 20th centuries in response to political machines, corruption, and powerful trusts. Reformers pushed for measures to make government more democratic and to curb corporate power, through remedies like antitrust actions to break up monopolies, regulatory agencies to oversee industries, and democratic reforms such as direct primaries and, later, the direct election of senators. They also promoted consumer protection and labor reforms, helping to lay the groundwork for broader social and political change.

This fits the early 1900s focus on ending political corruption and regulating big business. The other options don’t align as closely: the Populist Movement peaked in the 1890s with farmers’ grievances and monetary reform rather than a broad, nationwide push to regulate big business and reform city and national government; Reconstruction occurred after the Civil War, centered on rebuilding the South and civil rights for newly freed slaves; the Lost Generation refers to a post-World War I literary group in the 1920s, not a reform movement.