The Rise of
Progressivism
1873 - 1920
Mulberry Street on New York City’s Lower East Side, Around 1900
Introduction
• Rapid
industrialization &
urbanization created
problems
• Impose order on
growing chaos
• Optimistic vision
Introduction, cont.
• Society was capable of
improvement
• Growth & progress
could not continue to
occur recklessly
• Intervention by govt.
was necessary
The Progressive Impulse
• Spirit of
antimonopoly
• Importance of social
cohesion
• Organization &
efficiency
The Muckrakers and the Social Gospel
• Reform-minded
journalists
• Social, economic, &
political injustices
• Exposing scandal &
corruption
• Targeted trusts
The Muckrakers and the Social Gospel, cont.
• Ida Tarbell &
Standard Oil
• Child labor
• Railroads
• Immigrant ghettoes
• Labor unions
• Governments
The Muckrakers and the Social Gospel, cont.
• Pursuit of social
justice
• Social Gospel
mvmt.
• Redeem nation’s
cities
• The Salvation Army
The Settlement House Movement
• Belief that
environment shaped
individual
development
• An improvement in
the conditions of
poor was needed
The Settlement House Movement, cont.
• Jane Addams & Hull
House (1889)
• Staffed by
educated, middle
class
• Immigrant
neighborhoods
• Social work
The Allure of Expertise
• Building political &
economic institutions
capable of managing a
modern society
• Scientific management
& Taylorism
• Thorstein Veblen & A
Theory of the Leisure
Class (1899)
The Professions
• Expansion in # of
administrative &
professional tasks
• “New middle class”
valuing education &
accomplishment
The Professions, cont.
• American Medical
Association (1901)
• Lawyers & professional
bar associations (1916)
• Guarding entry into
profession
• Prestige, status
• Businessmen
• Farmers
Women and the Professions
• Mostly excluded from
emerging professions
• Middle-class women
entering professional
careers
• Settlement houses,
social work
• Teaching, nursing,
librarians, academia
Women and Reform
• Prominent role of women in reform
mvmts. is a significant feature of
progressivism
The “New Woman”
• Almost all incomeproducing activity
had moved out of
home & into factory
or office
• Women having
fewer children
• Home & family less
all-consuming
The Clubwomen
• Effort to extend
influence beyond
traditional sphere
• Charlotte Perkins
Gilman & Women
and Economics
(1908)
Women’s Suffrage
• Lrgst. reform mvmt.
• Stanton & “natural
rights” women
deserved the same
rights as men
Women’s Suffrage, cont.
• Some argued for
distinctive female
sphere
• National American
Woman Suffrage
Association (NAWSA)
• Carrie Chapman Catt &
Anna Howard Shaw
Women’s Suffrage, cont.
• Suffrage would allow
women to bring distinct
virtues to social
problems
• WWI gave final push
• Nineteenth Amendment
(1920)
Women’s Issues
• Margaret Sanger and
birth control
• Lochner v. New York
(1905)
• Muller v. Oregon (1903)
OR law barred women
from working more than
10 hrs. a day
• Brandeis brief
The Assault on the Parties
• Before society could
be reformed, govt.
would have to be
• Parties as a source
of corruption
Municipal Reform
• Impact of party rule
most damaging in
cities
• Opposition to reform
• City bosses, special
interests, recent
immigrants
• Commissions & city
mangers
Statehouse Progressivism
• Circumvent legislatures by increasing power of
electorate
• Initiative (submitting new legislation directly to
voters)
• Referendum (action of the legis. can be returned to
the voters for approval)
• Direct primary & recall
Statehouse Progressivism, cont.
• Robert M. LaFollette
(WI)
• Regulated RRs &
utilities, regulate
workplace &
provided workmen’s
comp., initiatives,
referendums
African Americans and Reform
• Booker T. Washington
• Founder of Tuskegee
Institute (1881)
• Immediate selfimprovement through
education in agricultre
& the trades vs. longrange social change
African Americans and Reform,
cont.
• Atlanta Compromise
(1895)
• “Cast down your bucket
where you are”
• Encouraged African
Americans to stop
fighting segregation &
second-class
citizenship
African Americans and Reform, cont.
• W. E. B. DuBois
• The Souls of Black
Folk (1903)
• Full university
education
• Aspire to
professions
• “Talented Tenth”
• Immediate progress
on civil rights
African Americans and Reform, cont.
• Niagra Mvmt. (1905)
• End of segregation,
voting rights, & equal
ed. opportunities
• NAACP
• Fighting for equal rights
Crusades for Order and Reform
• Eliminate alcohol
• Curb prostitution
• Regulate divorce
The Temperance Crusade
• Necessary step in
restoring order to
society
• Major resurgence in
1870s
• Women’s Christian
Temperance Union
(WCTU)
• Frances Willard
• Eighteenth Amendment
(1919)
Immigration Restriction
• Some argued efforts at assimilation had
failed
• Eugenics – human inequalities were
hereditary
• Blocked for a time
The Dream of Socialism
• Radical critiques of
capitalism (1900 –
1914)
• Socialist Party of
America
• Industrial Workers of
the World (IWW or
Wobblies)
• Single union for all
workers
• Abolition of “wage
slave” system
Decentralization & Regulation
• Govt. to play a more active role in
regulating & planning economic life