Progressive Era
Progressive historians Charles Beard – Economic Interpretation of the Constitution of the United States Frederick Jackson Turner – The Significance of the Frontier in American History Collect data Challenge tradition, authority
Embrace Urbanization and Industrialization Capitalism good, excesses of cap bad Feared revolution
Faith in science and data Florence Kelley – research, research, research Louis Brandeis – win court cases by evidence Belief in efficiency, avoid waste
Necessity for moral improvement Temperance (again) Americanization, assimilation Settlement houses Social Gospel (Not Social Darwinism, Not Gospel of Wealth – opposite of both) = applied Christianity
Government responsibility for social welfare and fair play Edward Bellamy – Looking Backward, utopian gov’t monopoly on everything, no longer any harmful competition Regulate RRs (Elkins, Hepburn), banking, trusts Help unions Clayton Anti-trust Act combo punch Environment
As you read... Ask self, “self? How is this act or movement progressive?” Ask self, “on what level is this taking place? Municipal? State? Federal?” “Who is this helping?”
Progressive amendments 16 – income tax 17 – direct election of senators 18 – prohibition 19 – women’s suffrage Why are they progressive? (don’t they sound Populist?)
Heroes and heroines Florence Kelley (child labor laws) Theodore Roosevelt (everything. seriously.) Gifford Pinchot (environment), John Muir Robert LaFollete (because I like saying “Fightin’ Bob”) Jane Addams (Hull House, Nobel Peace Prize 1931) Ida Tarbell (muckraker, history of Standard Oil) Upton Sinclair (The Jungle, meatpacking Chicago)
Dark side Laissez-faire is optimistic Progressives think that people need regulating Nativism