The Yen for Reform
From the “Gilded Age” to the
“Progressive Era”
• Progressive Era – 1896-1920?
• What is progress?
The Problem(s)
• How to manage change
– Immigration
– Urbanization
– Industrialization
– Growth of wealth
– Corruption
– Poverty
A Dark Beginning
• Populist hopes thwarted in 1896
• Jim Crow grows in South
– Failure of biracial coalition
– Reversal of Reconstruction
“Redemption”
• White elite in South comes to power in 1880searly 1900s
• Cuts budgets, schools, hospitals
• Makes unemployment illegal
• Rents out convicts as slaves
– “One dies, get another”
Everyone Is Equal but Some Are More
Equal than Others…
• South imposes poll taxes, literacy tests, etc. to
vote (1896-1906)
• Plessy v. Ferguson (1896)
An Era of Accommodation
• Booker T. Washington (1856-1915)
• Black middle class builds own institutions
• Meanwhile, American Federation of Labor
replaces Knights of Labor in 1890s
The American Empire
• Conquered the West
• Now look to Cuba, Philippines, Hawaii
• Spanish American War (1898) – the “splendid
little war”
• “Remember the Maine!”
The Paradox of Progressivism
• Middle class and elite movement for reform
• Adopts some of Populist ideas
• Meant to better the lot of the poor, workers,
women
The Paradox of Progressivism
• Middle class and elite movement for reform
• Adopts some of Populist ideas
• Meant to better the lot of the poor, workers,
women
• A movement without an ideology?
Theories of Progressivism
• Status anxiety
• Anglo cultural resistance to immigrants, blacks,
poor
• Modernizing ideal of efficiency, order
• Need to tame monopoly
Progressive Women
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Settlement Houses
Fight for birth control
Fight for right to vote
“City Beautiful”
The Rise of Socialism
• Originally limited to immigrants, ex: Germans
• Became significant 3rd party under Eugene
Debs of Indiana
The Wobblies
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Industrial Workers of the World
Way more militant
“One big union”
Advocated general strike
Fought for free speech
Election of 1912
• Socialist Debs vs. Republican President
William H. Taft
• Progressive Theodore Roosevelt
• and Democrat Woodrow Wilson
What TR Had Been Up To
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Took over when McKinley assassinated (1901)
Trust-busting
Conservation
Handed reins to Taft in 1908
The Debate
• Roosevelt’s “New Nationalism”
– Idea that big business is here to stay
– Must be regulated
– Heavy taxes on the rich
– Early idea of social security/universal healthcare
The Debate
• Wilson’s “New Freedom”
– Less emphasis on government programs
– Tougher anti-trust laws
– Right to unionize
– Support for small business
Two Versions of Same Idea
• In office, Wilson pursued policies similar to
Roosevelt and Populists
– Banned child labor
– New protection for right to unionize and strike
– New regulation of business
– Federal Reserve (1913)