1. A Generation of Reformers
Early 1890’s

2. America’s Growth Cities grew larger Larger businesses
Untouchable wealth
Bigger problems
Housing
Food
Corruption
Crime

3. Progressives Looked to government to solve problems
Believed in efficient government
It could protect public interest
Restore order in society
Believed experts could solve the problems of the society

4. Education College enrollment way up Lester Ward
(10 fold increase from 1870 to 1920)
New departments (economics, political science, sociology) analyzing human society
Lester Ward
Applied scientific method to human problems
Argued that people can change their social environments – with the help of government

5. Muckrakers Writers Long investigative articles on
Interested in challenging the powerful
Long investigative articles on
Exploitation of child labor by wealthy corporations
Police corruption
Prestigious churches

6. Ida Tarbell Famous Muckraker
Wrote a series on the rise of the Standard Oil Company
Exposed methods used to crush competition (including Tarbell’s father)
SOC was owned by John D. Rockefeller

7. Upton Sinclair A novelist Wrote The Jungle
About immigrant workers in the meat packing industry
People reacted to Sinclair’s graphic portrayal of unsanitary conditions not the mistreatment of workers
“I aimed at the public’s heart, and by accident I hit it in the stomach.” – Sinclair

8. Religious Reformers Social gospel movement Walter Rauschenbush
Emphasized role of the church in improving life on Earth peoples lives
Walter Rauschenbush
Minister
Became a pastor in New York’s Hell’s Kitchen
Believed that economic competition and social conditions caused the ills in society, not an individual’s personal depravity

9. Activists Concerned Women National Consumers League
Florence Kelley – a well known activist who rallied against child labor
National Consumers League
Mostly middle and upper-class women concerned about child labor
Supported settlement houses (best known was Jane Adams’ Hull House)
Institutions providing services to the poor
By the early 1920’s, almost 1 million women had joined clubs promoting the arts, education, and community health.
Right to vote for women

10. African American Activists
Not accepted within the mainstream progressive movement
Antilynching movement
Ida B. Wells one of the best known antilynching leaders
NAACP founded in 1909
National Urban League in 1910
Fought against racial oppression