1. Progressive Era

2. Warm-up
Make a list of at least 5 problems that you see in city life? Pick one of those problems and write a solution.

3. Questions of the Day
What problems of society is the government responsible for fixing?
Were government policies during the Progressive Era successful solutions to the problems they faced?

4. Quote Analysis (Riis, 1890) Summarize the quote in one sentence.
A hundred thousand people lived in rear tenements in New York City last year. Here is a room neater than the rest. The spice of hot soapsuds is added to the air already tainted with the smell of boiling cabbage, of rags and uncleanliness all about. It makes an overpowering compound.
- How the Other Half Lives by Jacob Riis
Summarize the quote in one sentence.
Evaluate life for these people. Was it pleasant? Why or why not? Use evidence.

5. Picture Analysis
You are going to see a series of images taken by muckraker Jacob Riis.
Take out your picture analysis sheet.
As you see each image, write down 3 words you to describe the image, then write one societal problem you think the image represents.

6. Picture analysis 1 (Riis, 1890)

7. Picture analysis 2 (Riis, 1890)

8. Picture analysis 3 (Riis, 1890)

9. Picture analysis 4 (Riis, 1890)

10. Picture analysis 5 (Riis, 1890)

11. Picture analysis 6 (Riis, 1890)

12. Picture analysis 7 (Riis, 1890)

13. Picture analysis 8 (Riis, 1890)

14. Picture analysis 9 (Riis, 1890)

15. Picture analysis 10 (Riis, 1890)

16. What problems did these pictures show?

17. Progressive Era beginnings video

18. Conditions in the Slums
Many urban residents lived in poverty and labored under very hard conditions.
Cities were not set up for the enormous population.
1 house = families
Lack of fire protection
No indoor plumbing, so waste ended up in the streets.
Contagious diseases spread quickly such as tuberculosis and pneumonia.

19. Economy and the Progressive Era (Keppler, 1904)

20. Political Cartoon Analysis
What you see:
What it means
What problem did Standard Oil pose to the Progressives? What evidence in the political cartoon proves that?

21. Document Analysis (Sinclair,1906)
Read a section of Upton Sinclair’s “The Jungle”.
1. What problems does he describe?
2. How would you have felt if you were reading this information about your own food?

22. Unsafe Products: Buyer Beware
Increased production meant that more products were available, but buying them was not always a good idea.
Things found in meat:
Rat dropping
Rats
Borax
Formaldehyde
Medicine consisted of:
Narcotics
Morphine
Opium
Cocaine

23. (Hine, 1910)
Use the Photo analysis worksheet to analyze the image

24. More about Child Labor
Read the oral history and take notes on your research questions.
Were your questions answered?
How did the oral history change your view of the picture?

25. Problems in Workplace Sharp blades threatened meatpackers
Cotton dust plagues textile workers
Fire was a risk to everyone in tight factory conditions.
Children as young as 6 years old were working in factories to help support struggling families.
“Life in a factory is perhaps, with the exception of prison life, the most monotonous life a human being can live”

26. Who tried to fight these problems?
The Progressives!!!

27. What is Progressivism?
The progressives took action in response to these problems.
Wanted to improve society by
Promoting social welfare
Protecting the environment
Making government more efficient and democratic
Wanted government to solve society’s problems.
Progressives were not a unified group but all shared a commitment to progress and the belief that they could improve society.

28. Features of Progressive Reform
Desire to make society more moral and more just
Desire to distribute income more equitably
Desire to broaden opportunities for individual advancement
Women were active in progressivism
--Suffragettes like Susan B. Anthony

29. Who are muckrakers?
Group of journalists within the Progressive Movement
They uncovered the nation’s problems and wrote about them.
“raked the mud of society”
TheodoreRoosevelt

30. Muckrakers Respond to City Problems
Sought to expose city life problems
Conditions in Slums
Muckrakers blamed city governments for failing to provide adequate roads, sewage and power systems, and transportation.
Jacob Riis writes a book to expose “How the Other Half Lives” including disturbing photographs

31. Political, Social and Economic Reforms
The progressive Era was focused on political, social and economic problems. This led to the progressives asking the government to get involved in solving all of these problems. Thus the government became way more involved in the life of the individual American than it had ever been in the history of the United States.

32. Progressive Programs video

33. Response to Problems in the Workplace
Muckrakers exposed terrible working conditions.
Initiative: when everyday American citizens tried to address the problems in the United States by proposing laws & changes
A push for laws where children were required to go to school.

34. Your Turn
Now that you have a solid list of the problems faced during the Progressive Era, you are going to come up with your own solution.
For each problem we have listed, come up with a solution from your list.
Also make sure you decide whether the government should intervene in the problem or not. Use the Progressive Era: Your Turn Interactive Worksheet to guide you.

35. Response to Unsafe Products
In 1906, Upton Sinclar wrote The Jungle.
Unsanitary conditions in meatpacking plants
Muckrakers protested that big businesses were growing richer, while small businesses and the poor struggled even harder to survive.

36. IV. Progressive Amendments to the Constitution
Progressive reliance on the law
16th Amendment (1913)—federal income tax
17th Amendment (1913)—direct election of senators
18th Amendment (1919)—prohibition
19th Amendment (1920)—vote for women