Progressivism: Muckrakers &
Reformers
Rise of Progressivism
• New reformers emerge
as a reaction to the
nation’s rapid
industrialization,
immigration, and
urbanization.
– What were the
negatives of these?
– Believed private charity
could not do enough to
help.
• Progressive Era
– 1890-1920
• Many plans produced
with how to bring about
progress.
Goals and Beliefs
•
Progressivism was not a
unified movement.
–
•
Included Republicans and
Democrats
All Progressives held four
basic beliefs in common:
–
Government should…
1) …be more accountable to
its citizens.
2) …curb the power and
influence of wealthy
interests.
3) …be given expanded
powers so that it could
become more active in
improving the lives of its
citizens.
4) …become more efficient
and less corrupt so that
they could competently
handle an expanded role.
Igniting Reform
• At first, journalists and
other writers had
enormous influence on
public opinion.
– Muckrakers
• Journalists alerting the
public to wrongdoing in
politics and business.
• Many Americans were
inspired to take action
through reform.
– To put or change into an
improved form or
condition.
Muckraker: Upton Sinclair
• Author – The Jungle
– Graphic account of
filthy handling,
spoiled meat, and
generally unsanitary
conditions in
stockyards.
– Socialist?
"I aimed at the public's
heart, and by accident I hit
it in the stomach."
Muckraker: Ida Tarbell
• Author – The History
of the Standard Oil
Company
– Condemnation of
Standard Oil’s
monopoly.
“Rockefeller and his associates did not
build the Standard Oil Co. in the
board rooms of Wall Street banks.
They fought their way to control by
rebate and drawback, bribe and
blackmail, espionage and price
cutting, by ruthless ... efficiency of
organization.”
Muckraker: Jacob Riis
• Photographer – How
The Other Half Lives
– Startling print and
photographic exposés of
conditions in New York
City's slums.
“The slum is the measure of civilization.”
Reformer: Jane Addams
• Established the Hull House in
Chicago.
– Located in poor neighborhood
– Middle-class, college-educated
women shared skills with less
fortunate women and children.
• Sanitation, hygiene, English,
etc.
• Art exhibits, poetry readings,
concerts, and theatrical events
"America's future will be determined
by the home and the school. The
child becomes largely what it is
taught, hence we must watch what
we teach it, and how we live before
it."
Reformer: John Muir
• Naturalist, explorer,
and author
• Major figure in the
forest conservation
movement
– Muir Woods
"In God's wildness lies the hope
of the world—the great fresh,
unblighted, unredeemed
wilderness."
Reformer: Susan B. Anthony
• Led the fight for
women's suffrage for
more than 50 years.
"The true republic: men, their rights and
nothing more; women, their rights and
nothing less."
"It may be delayed longer than we
think; it may be here sooner than we
expect; but the day will come when
man will recognize woman as his peer,
not only at the fireside but in the
councils of the nation.”