369 AP US HISTORY
AMERICA: PAST AND PRESENT
EIGHTH EDITION
CHAPTER 22: THE PROGRESSIVE ERA
LEARNING TARGETS
1. Relate the purposes and results of “muckraking” to the broader movement of progressivism
2. Discuss the factors that contributed to a progressive movement of reform from 1890 to 1920
3. Explain the changes in American industrialism during the early twentieth century regarding
management and organization
4. Discuss the contributions made and benefits derived by women, African Americans, Mexican
Americans, and immigrants to the nations’ economic expansion during the Progressive era
5. Explain the origins and purposes of the Niagara Movement and the national Association for the
Advancement of Colored People (NAACP).
6. Examine the causes for and results of conflict in the industrial workplace
7. Analyze the successes and failures of union activities during this era
8. Discuss the new methods employed by industrialists to increase productivity, job safety, and
worker satisfaction
9. Explain how the effects of mass production and mass entertainment altered the lifestyles and tastes
of Americans
10. Describe the various types of experimentation in the fine arts in America during this era
AP TOPIC OUTLINE
Populism and Progressivism
Agrarian discontent and political issues of the late nineteenth century
Origins of Progressive reform: municipal, state, and national
Roosevelt, Taft, and Wilson as Progressive presidents
Women’s roles: family, workplace, education, politics, and reform
Black America: urban migration and civil rights initiatives
TERMS/PEOPLE TO KNOW
Muckrakers (1902-1909)
Progressivism (mid-1890s – 1919)
Henry Ford / Sociology Dept. /Five Dollar Day (Early
1900s)
Federal Roads Act (1916)
oligopoly / trusts / monopoly (1898 – 1903)
Taylorism / Frank Winslow Taylor (1911)
Margaret Sanger (1912-19533)
W.E.B. DuBos / Niagara Movement / The Souls Of Black
Folk / NAACP / “The Crisis”/ National Urban
League (1903 – 05)
Margaret Drier Robins / WTUL = Women’s Trade Union
League (1903)
Henry Ford (early 1900’s) P. 657 (again…)
Jelly Roll Morton
Ashcan School / Realists (Post 1900)
1913 Show—New York Armory
Post – Impressionists / Modernists
CHAPTER 22 ID’S
1902 – 1909
Muckrakers
Pg. 627
Muckrakers were a group of people who examined American life and exposed the dark and corrupt side
of society. They believed that people could change, and that there was hope for the future. Muckrakers
wrote about everything from the meat-packing industry to prostitution. They included people like
Stephen Crane, Theodore Dreiser, Upton Sinclair, and many other famous authors. The term Muckrakers
was coined by Theodore Roosevelt.
1890’S – 1919
Progressivism
Pg. 628
Progressivism was a movement that had its roots in populism. Progressivism developed as a result of the
new social sciences of sociology and psychology. Its followers were from all over the country.
Progressives were generally middle class professionals or well-off farmers. Progressives wanted to use
their ability to help improve society. There was no one, unified goal that all progressives worked for.
They wanted to improve all different areas of society from sanitation to government. Progressivism also
stretched across all political parties. Progressives believed in the use of group work, the scientific
method, and experts. They wanted to make society better and more efficient. The progressive movement
resulted in three progressive presidents, Theodore Roosevelt, Taft, and Woodrow Wilson.
early 1900’S
Henry Ford
Pgs. 629 – 630
In 1901, the first car was mass-produced on an assembly line by Ransom E. Olds. In 1904, Henry Ford
formed the Ford Motor Company, after selling his first car in 1903. In 1905, Ford raised the price on his
cars and sales bottomed out. He realized that a smaller profit on more sales meant bigger profit. Ford
used mass production to achieve his goal. He set up his first assembly line plant in Highland Park,
Michigan. Soon, he was the leader in automobile sales.
1898 – 1903
Oligopoly/Trusts/Monopoly
Pg. 630 – 31
Starting with Standard Oil in 1882, businesses turned to trusts and other consolidating measures to control
the U.S. Economy. Between 1898 and 1903, there were more mergers and consolidations than ever
before. The result of all these mergers was an oligopoly over almost every industry. An oligopoly is the
control of and industry by a few powerful companies. The oligopolies fixed prices and worked together
to dominate industries. The oligopolies fixed prices and worked together to dominate industries. The
oligopolies also saw finance capitalists replace industrial capitalists as the head of these companies.
1911
Taylorism/Frank Winslow Taylor
Pgs. 631-32
As industrialization proceeded, factories became more mechanized. Skilled laborers were constantly
being replaced by machines. The conveyor belt, rather than the laborers, controlled the factory and the
pace of work. One of the leaders in the transformation of the workplace was Frank Winslow Taylor.
Taylor tried to exact the maximum efficiency from his workers. Taylor said thought that work-related
knowledge should be something that laborers memorize and that management should standardize
everything the laborers do. He trained workers to do particular things and paid more for faster work. His
philosophy of efficiency became known as Taylorism.
1912 – 1953
Margaret Sanger
Pgs. 635-37
Families became an emotional rather than an economic movement during the early 1900’s. As they did
so, parents wanted to have less children, so birth control became more accepted. Margaret Sanger was a
nurse who advocated giving physicians broad privileges to prescribe contraceptives. The Comstock Law
of 1873 prohibited the transportation of contraceptive devices and information about them.
1903-05
W. E. B. DuBois/Niagra Movement/
Pgs. 635-39
The Souls Of Black Folk/NAACP/
The Crisis/National Urban League
At the beginning of the 1900’s, blacks had little more equality than they did immediately following the
Civil War. In 1905, a group of black leaders led by W.E.B. DuBois met at Niagara Falls and agreed to
fight for equal access to voting, economic opportunity, integration, and equality before the law. Rather
than taking Booker T. Washington’s gradual approach, they were more militant.
There were many race riots after the Niagara movement started to demand more rights. Whites stormed
into black neighborhoods, burning, and looting the businesses and houses. Blacks were lynched or killed.
After two especially bad riots in Atlanta and Springfield, William E. Walling, a wealthy southerner and
settlement house worker; Mary Ovington, a white anthropology student; and Oswald Garrison Villard,
grandson of William Lloyd Garrison, called for a conference that set up the National Association for the
Advancement of Colored People. It became the leading group that spoke for civil rights.
1905-1920’s
Industrial Workers Of The World
Pg. 643-44
During the early 1900’s, the AFL, reached record size, but it still only dealt with skilled laborers. The
Industrial Workers of the World (IWW) tried to organize the unskilled laborers working in the
mechanized factories. IWW was started in Chicago in 1905. They were called Wobblies and urged social
revolution. They lead several big strikes in Lawrence, Mass. and Paterson, NJ. They gained many
concessions for workers in the Northeast, farmers on the Plains, and loggers and miners in the South and
West.
post 1900
Ashcan School/Realists
Pg. 648-49
In the early 1900’s and as government passed laws limiting the workday, people had more leisure time.
One way that people used this free time was to experiment with the arts. In Greenwich Village in New
York, Robert Henri brought the realist painters together. They were called the Ashcan School by their
critics. They believed in painting life as it was. They painted bright, vibrant paintings of the tenements
and slums.
1913
Show at The New York Armory
Pg. 649
In 1913, there was an art show at the New York Armory. It was an exhibit of modernist paintings by
Picasso, Cezanne, Matisse, Brancusi, Van Gogh, and Gauguin. It amazed the Americans, but critics
called it garbage.
1900’s
Post-Impressionism/Modernism
Pg. 649
The modernists exhibited at the New York Armory influenced American art. These painters used bright
splashes of color and abstract patterns to portray the energy of urban life. They were very abstract. These
painters included john Marin, Max Weber, Georgia O’Keefe and Arthur Dove.
Progressive Presidencies
T. Roosevelt – R
(1901 – 1908)
Bully Pulpit
“First Trustbuster”
“Great Conservationist”
Also noted for foreign policy as well as
progressivism in domestic policy
UMW of Penn. vs. Coal Co.
Operators/Square Deal ( 1902)
William H. Taft – R
(1908 – 1912)
Republican Party Split
Conservatives
Progressives
“All Time Greatest Trustbuster”
Woodrow Wilson – D
(1912 – 1920)
Election of 1912
T. Roosevelt Wm. H. Taft W. Wilson
(Bull Moose)
(Republican)
New Nationalism
vs.
(Democrat)
New Freedom
Payne – Aldrich Act (1909)
Underwood Tariff (1913)
Canon – House Speaker (1999)
Labor Dept. est. 1913
Ludlow Colorado Strike (1914)
Dept. of Commerce and Labor (1903)
Ballinger – Pinchot Affair (1909)
Northern Securities (1904)
Federal Reserve Act (1913)
Mann-Elkins Act (1910) / ICC
Danbury Hatters Strike (1908)
Loewe vs. Lawlor
ICC = more power
Elkins Act (1903) & Hepburn Act (1906)
Muckrakers
Meat Inspection Act (’06) & FDA (’06)
Panic Hits 1907
Tennessee Coal & Iron Co.
Conservation – Pinchot (1908):
Quadrupled the acreage conserved
Clayton Antitrust Act (1914)
Republicans lose both houses in Congress
(1910) = first time since 1894
Antitrust Suit against U.S. Steel (1911)
(i.e. acquisition of Tennessee Coal and Iron
Company)
Biggest Trusts Busted (1911) = 44 in all
American Tobacco Co. & Standard Oil
16th Amendment – Income Tax (1909 / eff.
1913)
Federal Trade Commission ( 1914)
Brandeis to the Supreme Court (1916)
Adamson Act (1916)
(in reaction to RR strike)
Federal Workers Compensation Act
Keating Owen Act (1916)
19th Amendment = Women’s Suffrage
(1920)
THEODORE ROOSEVELT (New Nationalisms) AND WOODROW WILSON (New Freedom)
SIMILARITIES:
Need for Reform
Defend Capitalism / Anti-socialism
Against Radical Labor Unions and favor and strengthen conservative labor unions
Promote Democracy
DIFFERENCES
In a modern industrial nation, large
corporations were inevitable and necessary.
GOVT. IS THE STEWARD OF THE PUBLIC
WELFARE
A strong president and an increase in the power of
the federal government is needed to regulate and
ensure the rights of the common PERSON
USE HAMILTONIAN MEANS TO ASSURE
JEFFERSONAIN ENDS
A strong central government assures the rights of the
people
Need to recognize the Jeffersonian
tradition of limited government with
open competition.
Spoke of the curse of bigness in government (too
many commissions with regulatory powers) and said
TR’s policies would lead to regulated monopoly and
even collectivism