US History – Unit 3: Age of Progressivism
Chapter 3 (pg.53-66)
I.
New Industry – Industrial Revolution (1870-1900)
A. Rapid industrial development changed the nature of the work force and workplace.
1. Large factories staffed by semiskilled laborers displaced skilled artisans and small shops
2. Accelerated urbanization (population of cities increased from 20% to 40%)
B. Gilded Age – taken from the title of a Mark Twain novel, satirizes the materialistic excesses of the day.
1. Reflects the period’s shallow worship of wealth – and its veneer of respectability and prosperity covering
deep economic and social divisions.
2. President Ulysses S. Grant (18th President 1869-1877 Republican)
3. President Rutherford B. Hayes (19th President: 1877-1881 Republican) 1 term
4. President James Garfield (20th President: 1881 – Sept. 20th Republican)
a. 2nd President assassinated in office
b. Vice President - Chester A. Arthur (21st President: 1881-1885) 1 term
5. President Grover Cleveland (22nd President: 1885-1889 Democrat) 1 term
6. President Benjamin Harrison (23rd President: 1889-1893 Republican) 1 term
7. President Grover Cleveland (24nd President: 1893-1897 Democrat) 1 term
a. 1st President to be reelected in non-consecutive terms
8. President William McKinley (25th President: 1897-1901 Republican) 2 terms
a. Assassinated by Leon Czolgosz an anarchist – shot the President in the stomach in a greeting line
b. Vice President Theodore Roosevelt (26th President: 1901-1909) 2+ terms
1) Served the last year of McKinley’s 2nd term and then was elected President twice in a row
2) First Progressive President
C. The Electrical Age – Technology transformed factory work, increased the scale of production, and
transformed city life.
1. Thomas Edison – electric light bulb & the electric generating system
2. Edison’s General Electric Company in 1892 – established the country’s first corporate research and
development division.
D. The Corporation – an association of individuals with legal rights and liabilities separate from those of its
members.
1. Key feature – separation of ownership from management. Corporation can raise capital by selling stock –
ownership shares – to shareholders who may have no direct role in running it.
2. Two Major advantages: (1) corporation can outlive its founders which permits long-term planning
(2) corporations enjoy limited liability = shareholders and officials not personally liable for corporations
debts
3. Ripple effect = large corporations needed huge supplies of capital – they turned to banks to help meet
those needs which resulted in the growth of banks.
4. Corporations stimulated technological change as they looked for ways to speed production, improve
products, and lower costs.
a. control of the workplace shifted from well-paid, skilled artisans to managers and semiskilled and
unskilled workers (new workers often foreign-born, performed repetitive tasks for low wages)
5. Two organizational strategies of corporations:
(1) Vertical integration: involved the consolidation of all functions related to a particular industry,
from the extraction and transport of raw materials to the manufacture of products to finishedproduct distribution and sales.
Ie. Gustavus Swift – meatpacking industry & refrigerated rail cars
(2) Horizontal integration: involved the merger of competitors in the same industry.
Ie. John D. Rockefeller – Standard Oil Company pioneered horizontal integration in 1880s.
Vertical integration = owned oil fields, pipelines, and refineries
a. Other entrepreneurs: James B. Duke = Cigarettes / Andrew Carnegie = U.S. Steel Industry
6. The modern corporation challenged the ideal of the self-made man and the belief that success and
advancement would reward hard work.
7. Giant corporations helped increase the efficiency of the American economy, raise the national standard
of living, and transform the U.S. into a major world power.
E. Changing nature of work
1. Increase in jobs but decrease in wages – work force continued to grow with millions of new immigrants
a. Poor working conditions = increased on the job injuries and death
1) The Jungle (1906) Upton Sinclair
2) 10 hour workdays – 6 days a week
3) Sweatshops – primarily in the garment industry (small, cramped, poorly ventilated)
2. Child Labor – common in garment trade and other industries (injuries and illnesses)
3. Working Women – 1870 to 1920 number of women and children in work force more than doubled
a. Paid lower wages than men
b. 1900 – 85% of wage-earning women were unmarried and under the age of 25
c. Prostitution – 4 or 5 times the pay of factory work
d. Typewriter – new opportunities in office work
e. Higher education – by 1910: women made up 40% of college students = led to careers in nursing,
teaching, and library work
F. Responses to Poverty
1. Urban Housing
a. Tenement Apartments: urban slums, lacked ventilation and light.
b. Settlement Housing – sought to moderate effects of poverty through neighborhood reconstruction
1) Chicago’s Hull House, 1889 – founded by Jane Addams
2) Provided working poor with facilities and education to help them improve their environment and
eventually escape it.
2. Gospel of Wealth: Theory popular among industrialists, intellectuals, and some politicians
a. Believed that any intervention on behalf of the poor was of doubtful benefit, hard work and
perseverance led to wealth.
b. Poverty resulted from the flawed character of the poor.
c. Andrew Carnegie (wealthy industrialists) – provided a softer view of the gospel of wealth
1) Stressed the responsibility of the affluent to set an example for the working class and to return
some of their wealth to the communities in which they lived.
Ie. Building libraries, cultural institutions, schools
3. Social Darwinism – flawed attempt to apply Charles Darwin’s theory of biological evolution to human
society emerged as a common justification for the growing gap between rich and poor.
a. Theory: the human race evolves through competition – the fit survive where the poor perish – and
humanity moves forward.
b. Wealth reflects fitness and poverty reflects weakness
c. For government or private agencies to interfere with this natural process is futile.
d. John D. Rockefeller (Owner of Standard Oil Trust) asserted that the survival of the fittest is “the
working out of a law of nature and a law of God.”
G. Unionization of Labor
1. The Great Uprising, 1877 – President Rutherford B. Hayes used federal troops to defend railroad property
against a railroad workers strike against pay cuts.
a. triggered a nationwide response by railroad workers who protested the Presidents’ actions by
refusing to work.
b. Violence erupted at strikes which led to further protest and deaths.
2. Knights of Labor – union of craft workers founded in 1869, welcomed blacks and women.
a. Led movement for 8 hour workday
b. Staged strikes and boycotts
c. Ran candidates for local elections
d. Haymaker Square incident where a bomb killed police officers and strikers led to a decline in
membership
3. American Federation of Labor (AFL), 1886 – major organizing body of skilled workers
a. Led by Samuel Gompers – the organization emphasized collective bargaining (negotiations between
management and union representatives to secure workplace concessions)
b. Left out unskilled workers, black workers, and women
4. Pullman Strike, 1894 – Eugene V. Debs organized the ARU (American Railway Union) boycott of any train
that used Pullman cars, called for workers to walk off the job = crippling rail travel nationwide
a. Debs refused to honor a federal court injunction against the strike – President Cleveland, at the
railroads request, ordered federal troops to enforce it.
b. Debs was arrested – the strike and the union were broken
Chapter 3
II. New Immigrants (20 million new immigrants between 1870 and 1910)
A. Pre-Civil War: primarily from Northwest Europe (Protestants) / Post Civil War (Antebellum to 1910) primarily
from Southern & Eastern Europe (Catholics & Jews)
1. Reasons for immigration: lack of land and economic opportunities in home land due to growing
populations (Russian Jews – migrated due to religious persecution: pogroms)
a. Railroads and steamships made travel safer and cheaper for immigration to America
2. Chain migration – early immigrants (mostly young men) laid foundations for family and friends to
immigrate later
B. The Job
1. Immigrants perceived the job as the way to independence and as a way out (back to Old World or into
larger American society)
2. Type of work available to immigrants depended on their skills, the local economy, and local
discrimination
a. stereotypes channeled immigrants’ work options – sometimes benefiting one group at the expense of
another.
3. Goal for many immigrants was to work for themselves rather than someone else
C. Nativism: anti-foreign prejudice
1. Anti-foreign sentiment changed in two ways in the late 19th century from that of the antebellum
Period (post-Civil War):
1st - Target was no longer Irish Catholics – but the more numerous Catholics & Jews of southern
and eastern Europe.
nd
2 - Nativism maintained there was a hierarchy of race – at the top: white northern
Europeans(Anglo-Saxons) then French, poles, Italians, Jews, Asians, and Africans
a. Social Darwinism, which justified the class hierarchy, reinforced scientific racism
3. Such sentiments generated proposals to restrict foreign immigration
a. Naturalization Act, 1870 – limited citizenship to “white persons and persons of African descent.” Act
was intended to prevent Chinese from becoming citizens (ban was not lifted until 1943)
b. Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882 – made Chinese the only ethnic group in the world that could not
emigrate freely to the United States
c. American Protective Association (APA), 1887 – sought to limit Catholic civil rights in the U.S. to
protect jobs for Protestant workingmen
d. The Immigration Restriction League (IRL), 1894 – wanted to require immigrants to pass a literacy test
– failed to become law
4. The return of prosperity and the growing preference of industrialists for immigrant labor put an end to
calls for formal restrictions on immigration for the time being
5. Assimilation of immigrants in the late 19th century was a process of adjustment between old ways and
new, which resulted in entirely new cultural forms.
D. The Great Migration: Between 1880 and 1900 black families moved into the great industrial cities of the
Northeast and Midwest – drawn by the same economic promise that attracted overseas migrants and were
pushed by growing persecution in the South.
1. Had to compete with European immigrants for jobs as common laborers and domestic servants
2. They were restricted to segregated urban ghettos
3. Popular culture reinforced the marginalization of African Americans
E. The New Middle Class – late 19th century industrial technology and urban growth expanded the urban middle
class.
1. Included professionals: doctors, lawyers, ministers and educators, as well as salespeople, factory
supervisors, managers, civil servants, technicians, white collar office workers.
2. New middle class = class of consumers – lived in all-electric homes, indoor plumbing, and appliances that
made food prep. Easier.
a. Advertisers now told Americans what they wanted – they created demand and developed loyalty for
brand-name products.
b. The department store came to epitomize the bounty of the new industrial capitalism
3. Sports and leisure separated by social class
a. Upper-class: Ivy league schools = football, private country clubs = golf & tennis
b. Middle-class: rode electric trolleys to parks, bicycling, professional baseball games
c. Working-class: tavern/saloon, amusement parks
Chapter 4
III. Transforming the West
Chapter 5
IV. Politics and Government
A. Partisan Politics: Democrats and Republicans had virtually the same level of electoral support – so they
worked hard to get out the vote.
1. Rarely did either party control both the presidency and Congress at once
2. Interrelated regional, ethnic, religious, and local factors determined the party affiliation of most
Americans
3. Party loyalty was largely a cultural trait passed from father to son
a. Republicans – identified their party with nationalism and national unity and attacked the Democrats
as an alliance b/w embittered South and slums of Northern cities
b. Democrats – portrayed themselves as the party of limited government and personal liberties
B. Third parties: organized around specific issues or groups
1. Prohibition party – abolition of alcohol
2. Greenback party – labor reform and currency inflation
3. People’s or Populist party – formed on the basis of Southern Farmers ‘ Alliance and other organizations,
mounting electoral challenges against Democrats in the South and Republicans in the West
a. Omaha Platform: election of 1892 – rejected laissez-faire policies, demanded government ownership
of railroads and the telegraph/telephone systems, national currency issued by the government rather
than private banks, a graduated income tax, redistribution of settlers of land held by railroads and
speculative corporations.
b. Accompanying resolutions: endorsed direct election of senators, the secret ballot, electoral reforms
to make government more democratic and responsive to popular wished.
C. Associational Politics – likeminded individuals, operating outside the electoral arena, worked to achieve
public policies beneficial to their members.
1. Granger Laws – public regulation to control the rates charged by railroads and grain elevators
2. Mugwumps – campaigned for honest and efficient government through civil service reform
3. National American Woman Suffrage Association – women’s suffragists
D. Federal Regulation – popular pressure compelled Congress to take steps toward the regulation of big
business
1. Interstate Compact Act, 1887 – prohibited rebates, discriminatory rates, and pooling and established the
Interstate Commerce Commission (ICC) to investigate and prosecute violations
2. Sherman Antitrust Act, 1890 – laws intended to break up or regulate corporate monopolies
a. Problem – vaguely written and weak in its ability to prevent abuses, Courts further weakened it,
presidents made little effort to enforce it.
E. The People’s Party (Populist) – primarily made up of Midwestern farmers
1. Omaha Platform – Meeting of the Populist Party in Omaha, Nebraska in 1892
a. Platform demanded
1) government ownership of the railroads and the telegraph and telephone systems;
2) a national currency issued by the national government rather than by private banks;
3) the sub-treasury system; free and unlimited coinage;
4) a graduated income tax;
5) and the redistribution to settlers of land held railroads and speculative corporations.
Chapter 6
V. Progressivism: represented the coalescing (joining) of different and even contradictory movements that
sought changes in the nation’s social, economic, and political life.
A. Shared convictions of progressives:
1. Believed that to correct the disorders that industrialization and urbanization had produced required
new ideas and methods
2. They rejected the ideology of individualism in favor of broader concepts of social responsibility.
3. Sought to achieve social order through organization and efficiency.
4. Believed that government itself, as the agent of public responsibility, should address social and
economic problems.
B. Industrial and Urban tensions: the economic, social, and cultural issues of the early 1900’s that led to the
progressive demands for reform.
1. economic – mergers of giant corporations threatened to squeeze opportunities for small firms and
workers, dominate markets, raised social tensions
2. Social – working conditions worsened with increased dangers in the work place and declining wages
3. Cultural – new immigrants (14 million between 1900-1917) filled cities –urban slums / ethnic
prejudices grew
C. Social Gospel movement: reform minded Protestant ministers sought to introduce religious ethics into
industrial relations and appealed to churches to meet their social responsibilities
1. Washington Gladden: Congressional minister – ministered to working-class neighborhoods that most
churches ignored, endorsed unions and workers’ rights and proposed replacing a cruelly competitive
wage system with profit sharing.
2. The movement provided an ethical justification for government intervention to improve social order
D. Muckraking: Journalists who spread reform ideas by developing a new form of investigative reporting
1. Samuel McClure: McClure’s Magazine – published investigations of business abuses, dangerous
working conditions, and the miseries of slum life.
a) Ida Tarbell – revealed John D. Rockefeller’s sordid construction of Standard Oil
b) Frank Norris – dramatized Southern Pacific Railroad’s stranglehold of California farmers
c) Upton Sinclair – The Jungle exposed nauseating conditions in Chicago’s meatpacking industry.
E. “Gospel of Efficiency,” to apply science in an attempt to direct change efficiency
1. they used scientific methods to collect extensive data and relied on experts for analysis and
recommendations.
2. Scientific management seemed the key to eliminating waste and inefficiency in government, society, and
industry.
3. Rural reformers thought that scientific agriculture could bring prosperity to impoverished Southern
countryside; urban reformers believed that improvements in medical science and professionalization of
physicians through uniform licensing standards could eradicate the cities’ wretched public health
problems.
F. Labor’s Demand for Rights
1. They resisted the new rules of efficiency experts and called for improved wages, working conditions,
and reduced hours.
2. They demanded new laws to compensate workers injured on the job, curb child labor, and regulate
the employment of women.
3. The sought to achieve some of these goals through state intervention (laws), they organized strikes –
marches, sit-ins, rallies.
G. Role of women reformers and their organizations in progressivism
1. Women became “social housekeepers” in the community – National Congress of Mothers worried
about crime and disease, championing kindergartens, foster-home programs, juvenile courts, and
compulsory school attendance.
2. National Consumers’ League tried to protect both women wage earners and middle class housewives
by monitoring stores and factories to ensure decent working conditions and safe products.
3. WTUL unionized women workers and eliminated sweatshop conditions.
a. Feminist Alliance demanded the removal of all social, political, economic and other
discriminations which were based upon sex.
Chapter 6
VI. Social and Political Reforms of Progressivism
A. American socialists
1. Condemned social and economic inequities, criticized limited government, and demanded public
ownership of railroads, utilities, and communications.
2. Most prominent socialist: Eugene Debs (organized the Socialist Party of America)
B. Social Control and Moral Crusades
C.
D.
E.
F.
1. Prohibition – 18th Amendment
Women’s Suffrage (19th Amendment)
Electoral Reform
1. Australian Ballot
2. 17th Amendment – Direct election of State Senators by popular vote
3. Initiative – enabled farmers themselves to propose legislation directly to the electorate, bypassing
an unresponsive legislature
4. Referendum – permitted voters to approve or reject legislative measures
5. Recall – enabled voters to remove unsatisfactory public officials from office
The Progressive President – Theodore Roosevelt (26th President: 1901-1909)
1. The modern presidency: Roosevelt expanded the national government’s power and consolidated it into
The executive branch
a. Reorganized the executive branch – believed in efficiency and expertise to promote rational
policymaking and public management
b. “Square Deal” – Roosevelt’s phrase used to describe his arbitration between coal miners and coal
mine owners
c. Conservation of natural resources through efficient and scientific management.
1) Roosevelt used his executive power to establish millions of acres of federal forest reserves,
petroleum and mineral deposits, and wildlife refuges
d. “Trust Buster” – Roosevelt’s nickname for his favoring of government regulation to prevent corporate
abuses and defending the public interest.
1) Antitrust suits
2) Hepburn Act, 1906 – authorized the Interstate Commerce Commission to set maximum railroad
rates and extended its jurisdiction
3) Pure Food and Drug Act, Meat Inspection Act – extended government regulation over business to
protect the public health and safety
President William Howard Taft (27th President: 1909-1913 Republican) 1 Term
1. Continued progressive agenda of Roosevelt
2. 16th Amendment – federal income tax (gave the federal government the power to tax all working
American’s income)
a. One of the most important accomplishments of the Progressive Era, the income tax would provide
the means for the government to expand its activities and responsibilities
3. Republican Party split between Progressives and Old Guard Republicans
4. Roosevelt ran as a Progressive 1912 splitting the Republican ticket – Democrat Woodrow Wilson won the
presidency