Research Paper on:
E.L. Doctorow's Ragtime and History

Unformatted Sample Text from the Research Paper:
not only concerned with society and particular fictional characters but also presents the reader with numerous real characters who existed during the time period. For example, we have such people  as "Harry Houdini, Andrew Carnegie, JD Rockefeller, Brooker T. Washington, and Evelyn Nesbit" (Ragtime: explorations of a novel by E.L. Doctorow). In the following paper we examine some of the  historical perspectives offered in Doctorows novel as they concern the Progressive Era. Ragtime and Trends in the Progressive Era The Progressive Era was a time period when the  society was seeking some answers to the changes that had come upon the country. Much of the nation felt that previous generations had done a great deal of harm to  the American way of life through such realities as industrialization and urbanization. These were conditions that had severely affected the family structure of the country, as well as the moral  and ethical structure of the country. As such it serves as one of those periods in history when the United States was trying to regain some of its strength in  regards to the people and the nation. In the novel "Ragtime" we are often presented with many examples of the time period in regards to the somewhat tumultuous condition  of the nation. We see this in the turmoil of the families presented in the novel, and in the issues which relate to such conditions as immigration and racial inequality,  and the overall general struggles of a nation that is trying to come together somehow. Interestingly enough, the novel begins by illustrating a reality that seems peaceful and stable: The  best part of Fathers income was derived from the manufacture of flags and buntings and other accoutrements of patriotism, including fireworks. Patriotism was a reliable sentiment in the early 1900s"