1901-1910

Abigail Adams

American History

Thesis

• The new age of the twentieth century brought about great change and a new way of life for the American people, this time brought about political, economical and social change, even though these times were filled with prosperity and modernization many Americans faced hardships which the muckrakers of America worked to revolutionize.

Political Change

Presidency

• on September 6th President McKinley is shot by Leon Czolgoz at the Pan-American Exhibition in Buffalo, N. Y. He dies of his wounds on September 14, and Roosevelt is sworn in as president on the same day.

Platt Amendment

• The Platt Amendment, required that Cuba cede territory for American military and naval bases and it also granted the United States the right to intervene on the island to preserve order, life, property, and liberty. President William McKinley signed into law on 2 March.

Panama Canal

• On November 18th, the Hay-Buneau-Varilla treaty gave United States permanent rights to a 10-mile-wide strip of land in return for $10 million and annual payments.

Work on the Panama Canal

• Roosevelt ordered army engineers to start digging right away. Thousands of workers sweated in the malarial heat. They tore up jungles and cut down mountains. Insects infested the area. "Mosquitoes get so thick you get a mouthful with every breath," a worker complained. The mosquitoes also carried yellow fever, and many fell victim to the deadly disease.

Second Presidency for Roosevelt

• The Socialist Party nominated Eugene V. Debs for president. The Republicans nominate Roosevelt, who wins handily by 2.5 million votes over Democrat Alton B. Parker.

The Pure Drug and Food Act of 1906

• The muckrakers had successfully heightened public awareness of safety issues stemming from careless food preparation procedures and the increasing incidence of drug addiction from patient medicine, both accidental and conscious.

Provisions of the Act- • Creation of the Food and Drug Administration, which was entrusted with

the responsibility of testing all foods and drugs destined for human consumption

• The requirement for prescriptions from licensed physicians before a patient could purchase certain drugs

• The requirement of label warnings on habit-forming drugs.

Social Change

Muckrakers in the 20th Century

• Muckrakers were a group of writers in the early 1900's who exposed social and political evils in the United States. They wrote about such problems as child labor, prostitution, racial discrimination, and corruption in business and government.

Famous Muckrakers

• Upton Sinclair wrote “The Jungle” which showed the truths about the meatpacking industry.

• Ida Tarbell who is best-known for her 1904 book, The History of the Standard Oil Company , which is about the corruption on the Oil Company run by John D. Rockefeller.

Population

• The population between the years 1900 to 1910 grew substantially, it went from sixteen million to 75 million.

Progress for Women

• Women made important gains within professions such as law and medicine. In the 1900s women forced open the doors of some of the nation's most prestigious colleges and graduate schools. By 1910 women made up 40 percent of undergraduates in American colleges and universities.

Model T

• Henry Ford invented the Model T in 1908. It was popular among the middle class. The Model T is generally regarded as the first affordable automobile.

Well known novels

• 1901 The Wonderful Wizard of Oz written by L. Frank Banm 1901 Up From Slavery by Booker T. Washington - the autobiography about the black slave who took a stand against slavery. 1903 The Call Of the Wild by Jack London

The Wright Brothers

• Orville and Wilbur Wright In December 1903, in North Carolina, succeeded in flying a flimsy craft on a series of wobbly flights, the longest lasting 59 seconds and covering 852 feet. It was the world's first successful flight.

Economic Change

Standard Oil

• Theodore Roosevelt is the U.S. president most associated with dissolving trusts. Trusts were large business entities that largely succeeded in controlling a market but they were bad for businesses, essentially becoming a monopoly.

Roosevelt and Conservation

• One of President Theodore Roosevelt's most lasting and significant contributions to the world was the permanent preservation of the some of the most unique natural resources of the United States.

Conclusion

• The 1900’s were a time of great change, politically, socially, and economically. With a growing population and many innovative ways of life America was taking on a new way of living.

Work Cited

• http://www.kyrene.org/schools/brisas/sunda/decade/1900.htm

• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Economic_history_of_the_United_States

• http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1G2-3468300168.html

• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trust_busting• http://

ehistory.osu.edu/osu/mmh/1912/trusts/NorthernSecurities.cfm