The Progressive Era, 1880-1920 FROM: www.faculty.utep.edu/linkclick.aspx?link=progressivism1.ppt Revised: R Ryland, 2013
The progressive impulse took many forms so many, in fact, that even today scholars do not agree on what progressivism meant (turn to text, p. 567)
The Progressive Era, 1880-1920
Main points & Issues Origins of Progressivism Characteristics and Beliefs Moderate Responses to Extremes in America Major Trends and Examples Successes and Legacies
Origins of Progressivism Reaction to extremes of modern life Capitalism & individualism Urbanization & Industrialization Labor conflict Immigration Environmental exploitation Social problems
Characteristics Middle class morality Moderation Scientific Order and stability Active government Collective responsibility
Characteristics Conservation of resources Assimilation Social Gospel Professional Organizations
Influence of Big Business
Triangle Shirtwaist Fire 1911 New York City Locked doors 800 trapped 146 women died Female labor, bad working conditions, immigrant rights, shop floor laws
Deaths from Fire
Public Health and Cities No clean water Sewage systems Tenements Ventilation & fire codes Zoning & regulation Tuberculosis & disease
Jacob Riis, Photographer Police photographer Photography and social justice Muckraker
Settlement Houses Jane Addams Hull House Employment, health, education, language Assimilation and Americanization Best and worst of Progressivism
Jane Addams Jacob Riis
Progressive Journalism Corruption and social injustice Raise the consciousness of America Morality, democracy, Christianity Muckrakers Lincoln Steffens, The Shame of the Cities, Ida B. Wells and lynching Ida Tarbell and Standard Oil Upton Sinclair and The Jungle, 1906 http://www.ushistory.org/us/42b.asp
Ida B. Well s defiant act occurred before Plessy v. Ferguson (1896), the U.S. Supreme Court decision that established the fallacious doctrine of "separate but equal," which constitutionalized racial segregation. She wrote in her autobiography: I refused, saying that the forward car [closest to the locomotive] was a smoker, and as I was in the ladies' car, I proposed to stay.. [The conductor] tried to drag me out of the seat, but the moment he caught hold of my arm I fastened my teeth in the back of his hand. I had braced my feet against the seat in front and was holding to the back, and as he had already been badly bitten he didn't try it again by himself. He went forward and got the baggage-man and another man to help him and of course they succeeded in dragging me out.
Lincoln Steffans Ida P. Tarbell Margaret Sanger
Progressivism & Eugenics Produce superior races of people Social Darwinism No miscegenation Anti-immigration Control & organize races Racial purity Intelligence Sterilization
Fitter families & better babies
Environmentalism Exploitation Natural Resources as public resources Preserve & protect Use but conserve John Muir Gifford Pinchot National Parks
Child Labor No regulations Few public schools Cotton fields, factories and coal mines People of color Immigrants Working class poor whites, southerners
National Progressivism Power of government to regulate national activities Theodore Roosevelt Trust-busting Active Gov t Global Power Conservation Americanization Eugenics
Woodrow Wilson Southerner New Jersey, Princeton 1912 & 1916 Child labor, FTC, farms, workers compensation, anti-monopoly Reduce Regulation Opposed women s suffrage Segregation
Fighting Bob LaFollette LaFollette created an atmosphere of close cooperation between the state government and the University of Wisconsin in the development of progressive policy, which became known as the Wisconsin Idea. The goals of his policy included the recall, referendum, direct primary, and initiative. All of these were aimed at giving citizens a more direct role in government. The Wisconsin Idea promoted the idea of grounding legislation on thorough research and expert involvement. To implement this program, La Follette began working with University of Wisconsin Madison faculty.
Reform Legislation 1906: Pure Food and Drug Act 1913: 16 th Amendment (Taxes) 1913: 17 th Amendment (Senators) 1913: Harrison Act regulated narcotics 1918: 18 th Amendment (Prohibition) 1920: 19 th Amendment (Women s voting)
W.E.B. DuBois Racial Equality National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, 1909 Society for American Indians, 1911 League of United Latin American Citizens, 1929 Japanese American Citizens League, 1929
Women Progressives Organizations WCTU GFWC WTUL Feminists Alliance Issues Women s rights Poverty Alcoholism Child Labor Public Education
Women s Suffrage
Elizabeth Cady Stanton Susan B. Anthony Carrie Chapman Catt
Conclusions Reaction to extremes of modern life Middle class reform and regulation Government activity in economy A range of reform activities Assimilation and progressivism It had a racialist, paternalistic side
1984 (86%) The public s response to Upton Sinclair s novel The Jungle helped bring about a) Antitrust legislation b) The Pure Food and Drug Act c) The Mann Act d) A strengthening of the power of urban political machines e) The Panic of 1907
1984 (20%) The ideas and ideals of Progressive reformers were NOT represented in which of the following? a) The Keating-Owen Child Labor Act b) The Fourteen Points c) The Volstead Act d) The National Origins Act e) The Taft-Hartley Act
1996 (57%) Constitutional amendments enacted during the Progressive Era concerned all of the following EXCEPT a) Imposition of an income tax b) Imposition of poll taxes c) Extension of suffrage to women d) Prohibition of the sale of alcoholic beverages e) Procedures for electing United States senators
2001 (49%) Progressive reformers rejected Social Darwinism because they believed that a) (a) all races were equal in ability b) (b) personal development was influenced solely by hereditary factors c) (c) conflict and competition did not necessarily improve society d) (d) science had no role in society e) (e) society was fixed by the laws of nature and incapable of any significant change
FRQ (2007-B) Explain how TWO of the following individuals responded to the economic and social problems created by industrialization during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Jane Addams Andrew Carnegie Samuel Gompers Upton Sinclair