Goal 7 Objectives: Rise of
Progressivism
Chapter 13 Textbook/Lecture/Handouts
7.01 Explain the conditions that led to the rise of
Progressivism.
7.02 Analyze how different groups of Americans
made economic and political gains in the
Progressive Period.
7.03 Evaluate the effects of racial segregation on
different regions and segments of the United
States' society.
7.04 Examine the impact of technological changes
on economic, social, and cultural life in the United
States.
What is Progressivism?
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Progressivism: a time period when people in
American began to favor progress toward better
conditions in government and society
How was Progressivism in conflict with the idea
of “individualism” of the Gilded Age?
Progressive Era runs from about the late 1890’s
to about 1920
Origins of Progressivism
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While reformers came from all classes and walks of
life, what social class was mainly responsible for this
social movement?
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The Progressive Era marks the first time that
Americans started thinking that maybe it wasn’t
always the “fault” of the poor for their situation.
“It is only by a slow and patient inward transformation...laws
aid in bringing about that men are really helped upward in
their struggle for a higher and fuller life” – Pres. Theodore
Roosevelt
Origins of Progressivism
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There is an intimate relation between a bad
environment and bad habits; that bad sanitation
had not a little to do with bad moral; that bad
ventilation and bad cooking are responsible for
much drunkenness.” – preacher of the “Social
Gospel”
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What does this quote tell us about Progressivism?
Top Progressive Causes: “Social
Evils”
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Prostitution:
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1 in 110 women in large cities were prostitutes; $6
week for most factory jobs, $25 a week for
prostitution
What was the Mann Act? What was it used for most
often?
• Temperance: Why did this tend to be a woman’s
cause?
Saloons tended to also be brothels;
1880-1900 number of saloons
doubled
•Growing divorce rate:
started in upper classes, but moved to
farms and middle class; “cruelty” became
a new ground for divorce
Why did this Progressive effort stall for
the most part?
Other causes….
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City officials and corruption (especially in voting;
The Reign of Gilt) Who was Boss Tweed?
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Trust busting and aim at big business and labor
conditions (Ida Tarbell, Upton Sinclair *)
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Minor causes: Paved streets, better drinking water,
sanitation, tenement housing reform, trust busting,
social welfare, the list goes on….
Big Business
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From 1897 to 1902: “the great merger
movement”, 1,800 companies merged into just
157 (vertical and horizontal integration)
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Mergers of companies raised price of goods, cut wages for
workers and demanded more productivity, manipulated freight
charges
What was…?
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Laissez-Faire approach
The Progressive Approach (3 things)
Some Ways to Reform Society (pgs 420-427)
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Muckrakers: What did that name mean?
Social Gospel: preached salvation through government activism
Anti Saloon League type groups or “smashers”
Settlement houses (tripled in 20 years)
Keating Owens Act: made child labor illegal, overruled in 1838
Worker’s compensation laws
17th Amendment: direct election of Senators
18th Prohibition (repealed in 1833)
Galveston Plan: formed local municipal government
Women’s colleges
Meat Inspection Act/Pure Food and Drug Act: result of “The
Jungle”
National Consumer League: labeled “goods produced under fair,
safe and healthy working conditions
National Association of Colored Women
19th Amendment
Limits to Progressivism
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What limited more progress of the Progressive
causes?
What’s Plessy v. Ferguson (1896) got to do
with it?
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“It is the Southern people themselves who must and can
solve the difficulties that exist in the South.” – T
Roosevelt
W.E.B. Dubois and Booker T. Washington
Teddy Roosevelt President: 1901
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Charismatic, and not weak, like the string of past
Presidents
How did Roosevelt feel about Progressives? Big
business?
Started “Square Deal”
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“When I say I believe in a square deal, I do not mean to
give every man the best hand. If good cards do not come to
any man, or if they do come, and he had not got the power
to play them, that is his affair. All I mean is that there shall
be no crookedness in the dealing.” – T Roosevelt
Was he a Trust Buster?
Pursuit of Pleasure
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Baseball went from players who were
considered “bums” to a “gentlemen’s game”
and the most popular sport in America
Vaudeville, Ragtime and jazz music
Silent movies
Freud, movies, birth control debate, and
attention to prostitution all made sexuality
more open**
Essential Questions
1.
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3.
How did the conditions of the Gilded Age
help the causes of the Progressives?
What tactics were most effective in bringing
about reforms? Why did these work more
than others?
Does society cause government to change or
does government cause society to change?