The Progressive Era

“Making the World Better”

Modern Connections

Progressivism• Two decades• Extremely optimistic • Men, women, D & R,

Populists, labor, business, religious figures, atheists, city politicians, teachers etc…

• Goal=improve the quality of life and the effectiveness and integrity of the government

Admissions Letters• Letters and

Presentations address the wide variety of individuals involved and issues addressed during the Progressive Era

Jacob Riis

Jane Addams

Florence Kelley

Frederic Howe

Samuel Jones

Hiram Johnson

Al Smith

Hoke Smith

Theodore Roosevelt

Woodrow Wilson

Ida Tarbell

Upton Sinclair

John Dewey

Louis Brandeis

Eugene Debs

Margaret Sanger

Booker T. Washington

W.E.B. DuBois

Lincoln Steffens

William M. Tweed

Mark Twain

Thomas Nast

Elizabeth Cady Stanton

Joseph Pulitzer

Frederick Taylor

Frances Elizabeth Willard

Robert M. LaFollette

Gifford Pinchot

Alice Paul

Henry Ford

Louis Sullivan

Scott Joplin

Irony and Paradoxo Racial inequalities

remained unaddressed or increased

o Southern blackso Anti-immigration o Interest groups/campaign

finance o Increased executive powero Middle class movement o decline in voter

participationo Introduction to a century

of unparalleled brutality

Case Study:“Triangle Fire”

Write down and define each reference to concepts and terms from the text mentioned in the documentary

2 point/term

Election of 1912• Significance:

o 1) Socialismo 2) Democrats back in

charge across the board

o 3) Southern Democrats have a green light

o 4) Republican Split (Taft & Teddy)—conservative party platform firmly established

• “political miracle” and “God ordained”

• New Nationalism (TR) vs. New Freedom (Brandeis) o Play fair regulator

Wilson’s Progressivism • Foreign Policy

o Democratic and pious idealism

o “anti-intervention” o Mexico, Nicaragua, Haiti,

DR. o WWI “neutrality”

• $2 billion to Allies• $27 million to Germany

o 14 Points and League of Nations • Group read and

discussion• Significance?

WWI—1914-1918• Election of 1916=peace

platform • April 2nd, 1917• “Safe for Democracy”

o British Propagandao International tradeo Unrestricted submarine warfare o Alliance w/ Mexico

• American Involvement o 1.5 years ( 8 months heavy

fighting) o US=126,000 killedo Germany=2 milliono France = 1.7 milliono Russia = 1.7 million o GB = 703,000

• Lusitania—(1915)128 Americans (1128 total passengers) o Motivation for plans for

preparedness o National Defense Act 1916o Troops #s 90,000 to 175,000

• Wilson v. TR• German cooperation

and neutral commerce• Progressive Tax

Structure

Wilson’s Progressivism Domestic

• Underwood—Simmons Tariff (1913) o Wilson believed tariff=trusts o First decrease since Civil Waro 16th Amendment connection?

• Federal Reserve Acto National banking systemo 12 Federal Reserve Banks o Controlled money supply o Dispersed reserves out of NYCo Controversial

• Clayton Antitrust (1914) o Federal Trade Commission (FTC)

Domestic Critics • Declared “New Freedom”

over by 1914• Declined federal support

for women’s suffrage, child labor, opposed farming loans, sympathized with motives of the KKK to avoid the “ignorant and hostile power of black vote” and the suppression of black rights was “inevitable for the natural ascendancy of whites”