U.S. HISTORY NOTESMRS. TEDDI BAKER

ON DESK: WRITING UTENSIL

Learning Targets

I can apply terms relevant to the Progressive Era.

I can interpret historical data from the Progressive Era.

I can demonstrate understanding of cause and effect and change over time relationships from the Progressive Era.

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Progressivism Web 3

Progressivism

The Progressive Era was a time period that addressed many of the social, political, and economic problems that industrialization created.

They wanted the government to be an agency of human welfare.

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Progressives were interested in making American industry more humane by curbing the effects of industrial capitalism and checking the power of monopolies.

This does not refer to a particular movement, rather a broad set of ideas

The Progressive movement defined

Progressivism was the reform movement that ran from the late 19th century through the first decades of the 20th century, during which leading intellectuals and social reformers in the United States sought to address the economic, political, and cultural questions that had arisen in the context of the rapid changes brought with the Industrial Revolution and the growth of modern capitalism in America. The Progressives believed that these changes marked the end of the old order and required the creation of a new order appropriate for the new industrial age.

The THREE main strands of the Progressivism

The movement was a wide ranging series of reforms (political, social, economic) at the national –state-local level focusing on three main areas:

Anti-monopolies and a fear of consolidated power

Social Bonds – society is an interconnected whole

Science, expertise, and efficiency (elitist) – Expertise by virtue of education, profession to scientific reforming of society

Who were the Progressives?

Progressives were journalists, intellectuals, and political reformers whose reform efforts were aimed at returning control of the people, restoring economic opportunities, and correcting injustices in American life.

Mostly middle class men and women.

Geography of Progressivism or Where did the Progressive reformers do their

work?

Working within the Government Working outside the Government

Mayors and Governors: Thomas Johnson, “Golden Rule” Jones, Hazen Pingree, Seth Low, Charles Evans Hughes, Robert LaFollette 

Journalists, muckrakers, social scientists: Upton Sinclair, Jacon Riis, Ida Tarbell, Ida Wells-Barnett 

BOTH groups have similar belief that the only reforms that work are structural reforms

Why did the Progressive movement happen in the 1890’s?

Early reform attempts had failed…Populists were dominated by a single monetary issue bimetalism. State government railroad reforms were shot down by Supreme Court (remember Munn and Wabash cases?)

#1 Wave of corporate mergers between 1897 and 1901 refocuses the US on the problem of consolidated power 4,2000 companies become 250 corporations EX- US STEEL –1901

#2 More and more Americans were going to college. This leads to an expanded middle class and professions in social work, psychology, and individual participation – avenues?. The national literacy rates had been steadily increasing and was at 92% for both men and women by 1910

#3 Power of the Muckrakers – Keeping the evils of industrialization in the forefront of the American conscience. Editors and publishers were eager to provide support for muckrakers' efforts as a way to boost circulation numbers and profits. Thus, the genre that emerged was a combination of investigation, advocacy, sensationalism, and yellow journalism

#4 Print Media - accelerated development of technology that accompanied America's industrialization made newspapers and literature mass-producible items, and the consumer culture that accompanied such industrialization created a demanding market for published works.so the number of people that were reachable through writing was very high.

#5 Religious Dimensions – “Social Gospel” Religious communities were encouraging people of faith to intervene without chastising the downtrodden.

Progressive Publicity

Progressives relied on newspapers and magazines to give publicity to their cause.

Muckrakers were those journalists and American writers in the early 20th century, who exposed corruption and scandals in business and politics.

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Issues that Progressives focused on…

Alcohol Consumption Prohibition Helping urban poor/housing reformImproving working conditions-

unsafe, unsanitary conditions Reforming Government- corrupt,

political machines and corrupt voting practices.

Women’s SuffrageAfrican American Civil Rights

Anti-Lynching campaigns

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ReformReform ReformersReformers

Write books and magazine articles to inform public and encourage them to demand reform

Muckrakers – journalists who wrote about the problems to persuade the public for the need for reform.

Sought not to overthrow capitalism but to cleanse it.

Cure the ills of democracy with more democracy.

Magazines like McClure’s, Cosmopolitan, Collier’s, and Everybody’s

Problem: All problems

ReformReform ReformersReformers

“Strengthen the state” – use government as an agency of human welfare

Progressives – large, diverse, and widely deployed. Progressive reformers – mainly middle-class men and women sought to improve the common person’s conditions of life and labor.

Progressive theorists were insisting that society could no longer afford the luxury of a limitless “let alone” (laissez-faire) policy.

Problem: Monopoly, corruption, , inefficiency, and social injustice

ReformReform ReformersReformers

Productive industry (or making goods to satisfy real needs.)

Thorstein Veblen 1899 The Theory of the Leisure Class

Problem: “Predatory wealth” and “conspicuous consumption”- the parasitic leisure class engaged in wasteful “business” (or

making money for money’s sake)

ReformReform ReformersReformers

1911 Supreme Court ordered the dissolution of the Standard Oil Company in a restraint of trade violation of the Sherman Anti-Trust Act of 1890

Henry Demarest Lloyd 1894 Wealth Against Commonwealth

Ida Tarbell 1902 McClure’s “Expose of the Standard Oil Company”

Problem: Standard Oil and its unfair business practices

Ida Tarbell

Muckraker: Famous exposé of the Standard Oil Company and its executive, John D. Rockefeller

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ReformReform ReformersReformers

Settlement house movement

Community centersProvided social

education, child care, language classes, entertainment, etc.

Jacob Riis 1890 How the Other Half Lives – This book deeply influenced a future New York City police commissioner (and President of the U.S.) named Theodore Roosevelt

Women progressives like Jane Addams in Chicago Lillian Wald in New York

Social gospel – a brand of progressivism based on Christian teachings

Problem: Poor housing and living conditions for the urban poor - slums

Reform: Housing Reform

1. Housing Reforms: Tenement Act of 1901Forced landlords to install lighting in

public hallwaysForced landlords to provide at least one

toilet for every two families. Outhouses were banned from NY slums. These reforms led to decreased death rates

and safer housing situations.

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ReformReform ReformersReformers

Government regulation

Theodore Dreiser The Financier 1912 and The Titan 1914

Problem: Promoters and profiteers