The study of how the modern U.S. emerged
begins with the Progressive era. This era
included the nation’s most vibrant set of reform
ideas and campaigns since the 1830s-40s.
All Progressives focused on a set of corrosive
problems arising from rapid industrialization,
urbanization (growth of cities), waves of
immigration, and business and political
corruption. They were highly dedicated to the
renewal of American democracy and great deal
of them were women.
Two of the problems confronted by the
Progressives are still central today:
First: How to maintain the material benefits flowing
from the industrial growth while bringing the
powerful forces creating those benefits under
democratic control while enlarging economic
opportunity.
Second: How to maintain democracy and national
identity amid increasingly diverse influx of
immigrants and amid widespread political
corruption and the concentration of political power.
Of all the waves of reformism in American
history, Progressivism is notable for its nearly all
encompassing agenda. It stood for Progress and
America was about progress.
Essential Question: How did the reforms of the
Progressive movement change the U.S?
While the Progressive movement was impressive, it
did have it’s drawbacks. They antagonized radical
labor movements and ignored the plight of African
Americans and all minorities. Also, one of the most
heated controversies was female equality.
Essential Question: How did African Americans
respond to discrimination and “Jim Crow?”
All issues of American foreign policy in the 20th
century have their origins in the emergence of the
U.S. as a major world power in the SpanishAmerican war at the end of the 19th century and in
the involvement of the U.S. in World War I.
Essential Question: What were the results of the
Spanish American War?
American intervention in World War I cast the die
for the U.S. as a world power for the remainder of
the century.
Much can be learned from the complexities of
foreign policy today by studying the difficulties of
maintaining neutrality in WWI while acquiring the
role of economic giant with global interests and
while fervently wishing to export democracy
around the world.
Essential Question:
What were the reasons for the United States
becoming involved in World War I and what
was the outcome?
In the postwar period the prosperity of the 1920s
and domination of big business and Republican
politics are important happenings of the period.
The cultural and social realms also contain
importance for today.
First: women finally achieve equality politically
and economically
Second: radical labor movements and radical
ideologies provoked widespread fear and
hysteria
Third: recurring racial tension that led to black
nationalism, the Harlem Renaissance, and the
first northward migration of African Americans
and the resurgence of the KKK
Fourth: a powerful movement to Americanize a
generation of immigrants and the closing of the
nation’s gates to more immigrants.
Fifth: examine the continuing tension among
Protestants, Catholics and Jews exemplified by the
resurgence of Protestant fundamentalism.
Essential Question: How was social and economic
life in the early twentieth century different from
that of the late nineteenth century?