AP U.S. History
Chapter 28: Progressivism and the Republican Roosevelt: 1901-1912
Focus Question
The impact of Theodore Roosevelt has been overemphasized. He merely took the nation in the
directions it was already headed rather than “changing forever the focus and direction of the
United States in both foreign and domestic affairs” as one enthusiastic biographer put it. Assess
the validity of this statement.
Learning Objectives





What were the roots of the Progressive movement in the United States?
Describe how the Muller and Lochner cases contributed to or hurt the Progressive
movement.
What were the three C’s of Roosevelt’s political platform? How were these
implemented?
Explain the differences between Taft and Roosevelt. How did this difference split the
Republican Party in the election of 1912?
What was Taft’s dollar diplomacy?
Questions
1. What was the battle cry of the progressive movement? What was its "real heart"?
2. What factors characterized the American population in 1900?
Progressive Roots (638)
3. What were the targets of each of these late-nineteenth-century social critics: Thorstein
Veblen, Jacob Riis, and Henry Demarest Lloyd?
4. In what ways was progressivism tied to the feminist movement and women's causes?
5. What arguments did female progressives use to justified their reformist political activities?
6. How was the Social Gospel movement linked to progressivism?
Raking Muck with the Muckrakers (639)
7. What were the targets of exposés by each of these early-twentieth-century muckrakers: David
G. Phillips, Ida Tarbell, and Ray Stannard Baker.
8. What purportedly corrupt alliance did Lincoln Steffens attack in his series of articles entitled
The Shame of the Cities?
9. According to the textbook, what did most muckrakers see as their primary function in the
progressive attack on social ills?
10. According to progressives, what was the cure for all of American democracy's ills?
Political Progressivism (641)
11. Why is it difficult to categorize progressive reformers? What were the major political
reforms advocated by progressives?
12. What was the expressed goal of the Seventeenth Amendment?
13. By 1910, what factors characterized women's efforts to gain the vote?
Thinking Globally (642)
14. What reasons do activists, scholars and politicians give to explain why socialism did not take
hold in America?
Progressivism in the Cities and States (644)
15. What were the highest priorities of progressive reform efforts at the city and state levels of
government? What was the stated goal of the progressive-inspired city-manager system of
government?
Progressive Women (645)
16. Why were the settlement house and women's club movements crucial centers of female
progressive activity?
17. What were the major issues addressed by women in the progressive movement?
18. What principle did the Supreme Court uphold in its Muller v. Oregon decision?
19. What were the political results of the public outcry after the Triangle Shirtwaist fire?
20. Why was the Supreme Court's decision in the case of Lochner v. New York a setback for
progressives and labor-union advocates?
21. Activists in the anti-liquor campaigns saw saloons and alcohol as intimately linked with what
social ills? What was the leading progressive organization advocating prohibition of liquor?
TR's Square Deal for Labor (647)
22. What proposals did Roosevelt advocate as a part of his "Square Deal" reform program?
23. How did Theodore Roosevelt help to end the 1902 anthracite coal strike?
Examining the Evidence (648)
TR Corrals the Corporations (649)
24. What was the stated purpose of the Elkins and Hepburn Acts?
25. What, according to the textbook, was Theodore Roosevelt's belief about large corporate
trusts? What was the real purpose of his assault on trusts? What policy did he believe that
the federal government should adopt toward trusts?
Caring for the Consumer (650)
26. How did Upton Sinclair's The Jungle contribute to the passage of the Federal Meat
Inspection Act? What was Sinclair's quite different purpose in writing the novel?
Earth Control (650)
27. What was the stated goal of the Newlands Act?
28. According to the text, what may have been Theodore Roosevelt's most important and
enduring achievement?
29. Why were affluent urban Americans typically the first people to work toward preserving
nature and the environment?
30. How did the argument over California's Hetch Hetchy Valley result in the western
preservationists' worst political setback?
31. In general, what were the beliefs of the multiple-use conservationists?
2
The "Roosevelt Panic" of 1907 (655)
32. How did Theodore Roosevelt's rash announcement, after his election in 1904, that he would
not be a candidate for a third term as president weaken him politically?
33. How did the Panic of 1907 lead to changes in U.S. banking and currency policies?
The Rough Rider Thunders Out (656)
34. On the spectrum between conservative defender of the existing order and wild-eyed socialist,
where might Theodore Roosevelt most accurately be placed?
35. In what ways did Theodore Roosevelt enhance the power and prestige of the presidency?
What were the other lasting accomplishments of his presidency?
Taft: A Round Peg in a Square Hole (657)
36. What were William Howard Taft's handicaps as he entered the presidency?
The Dollar Goes Abroad as a Diplomat (657)
37. Why was President Taft's foreign policy dubbed dollar diplomacy?
Taft the Trustbuster (658)
38. How did the Standard Oil case result in the Supreme Court establishing the "rule of reason"
doctrine in antitrust law?
Taft Splits the Republican Party (658)
39. How did Taft's treatment of the Payne-Aldrich tariff bill split the Republican Party?
The Taft-Roosevelt Rupture (659)
40. What reasons did Theodore Roosevelt give for his decision to run for the presidency in 1912?
3