Lecture – Era of Protest and Reform: Populism and Progressivism
Questions to Consider:
•
What factors triggered the birth of the Populist and Progressive Movements?
•
What were the different goals of the Populists and Progressives?
Costs of the Industrial and Urban Transformation of America
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Working Conditions & Child Labor
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Urban Living Conditions
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Pollution
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Hazardous Consumer Products
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Trusts and Monopolies
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Increasing Economic Stratification of Society
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Political Corruption
The Populist Revolt
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Crisis in American Agriculture
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Cooperation and Organization
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The People’s Party
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1892 Presidential Election
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Panic of 1893
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William Jennings Bryan
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1896 Presidential Election
The Progressive Moment
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Social Demographic of Progressives
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Muckrakers
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Urban Reform Movements
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State and National Politics
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Theodore Roosevelt; Assassination of William McKinley (1901)
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“Trust Busting”
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Increased Government Regulation
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Pure Food and Drug Act (1906)
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Panic of 1907
World War I
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New Directions in Progressive Policies
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World War I
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Prohibition – 18th Amendment (1919)
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Fight For Suffrage – 19th Amendment (1920)
For Further Reading:
Richard Hofstader, The Age of Reform (1955) – A historical classic tracing the emergence of the Populist
and Progressive Movements and the forces that shaped them.
Charles Postel, The Populist Vision (2007) – A modern re-examination of the Populist movement and
how this group responded to the problems of their modern age.
Michael McGerr, A Fierce Discontent: The Rise and Fall of the Progressive Movement in America (2003) –
a modern account of the origins, successes, and failures of the Progressive movement.
Films About This Period:
Iron Jawed Angels (2005) – a HBO film featuring Hiliary Swank about the suffrage movement and the
women that were a part of it, as well as the significant personal costs that accompanied advocating for
the vote.
A Corner In Wheat (1904) – silent film by notorious director D.W. Griffith about the plight of farmers
reacting to Wall Street tycoons attempting to manipulate the global agricultural markets. Available for
free (and legal) download here: http://www.archive.org/details/D.w.Griffith-ACornerInWheat1909
Our Daily Bread (1934) – New Deal era film glorifying the Populist era movement practice of farmers’
building cooperatives. In this film a group of farmers overcome poverty by working together.