This booklet is part of a series designed to help students take and defend a position on public issues. In this unit, the progressive era, a major reform period in U.S. history that stretched from about 1900 to 1915 is discussed. The book suggests that large scale reform is difficult to achieve because reformers often assume that their interests, values, and goals are shared by everyone except the "bad guys." Yet the bad guys often are not bad, just operating with a different set of interests, values, and goals. Reforms in one era may create the problems another generation of reformers tries to solve. Illustrating these differences of opinion are the critical questions of this unit: (1) Who should decide what reforms are needed? How can we distinguish between a change to advance a special interest and a reform in the public interest? What are the best methods for achieving change? (2) What is the government's responsibility to provide for and protect the health and safety of individuals? What is the individual's responsibility for protecting himself and other members of society? and (3) What is a corrupt government? Can government be better than the people it governs? What is the good citizen? This document is divided into six sections. The first is introductory. The second discusses the emergence of progressivism, and includes the United States at the turn of the century, the muckrakers, citizen action, and the progressives on education. The section on reforming city government discusses political machines and corruption. The fourth section talks about consumer protection. The fifth section relates these ideas to today's issues. The last section is a review and provides reflection on the topic. In the accompanying teacher's guide, instructions are given for the teacher to analyze the issues and teach the unit. The guide suggests that teachers preparing to teach the unit should have students come up with a list of current social problems. The teacher then chooses one of the issues to which strong disagreement is guaranteed. Students may then be divided into small groups. Handouts are included in which students learn about different types of issues and strategies for dealing with them. Instructions for introducing the unit offer information for the sections in the text including the emergence of progressivism, reforming city government, federal action toward consumer protection, and today's issues. A 10-item bibliography and three student handouts are included in this teacher's guide. The handouts are on strategies for analyzing public issues, who is responsible, and what is a proper response to a wrong or injury? (DK)