HIST 2230

Dec 4
The Progressive Era
Late 19th Century – People in America believed they were headed for utopia
A middle-class movement (as opposed to the L movement) – professionals engaging in a top-
down movement for change
Most major cities in the NE had huge proportions of European immigration  were paid low
wages due to industrial L surplus and consequently lived in slums
1. Origins
a. Urban Conditions – tenement 1-room apts for immigrants, frequent cholera/
scarlet fever/TB  outhouses (no indoor restrooms), no public transportation,
factories took best land near waterways (and dumped chemicals in said
waterways)
b. Urban Reform – Anecdote: ‘You shouldn’t be able to sell something that’ll make
people sick’ (laissez faire answer was “buyer beware”) – with more in cities now
than ever before, that doesn’t work so well, as you don’t personally know your
butcher – so in that way, we need consumer protection
i. Snake oil – why did people buy? People demmed that it worked.
1. “Charlatans” – it was necessary for the gov’t to step in and protect
citizens
2. Dems worked b/c placebo, were planted or…. Drugs (specifically
stimulants)
ii. Urban parks made
iii. Creations of public fire dept
1. Private 19th century free market fire depts before that – wouldn’t
put out your fire until you paid, connected to Irish organized
crime (rival fire depts would fight gang wars to see who would
collect the $ from fires/taking people to the hospital)
a. Arson too if business slow
c. The Social Gospel: see bottom of page
d. Social Science
i. John Dewey – social scientist from the Uni of Chi
ii. Sought to use scientific methods to reform and improve society
iii. Focussed upon schooling, believing it should be more democratic,
participatory, and child-centric
iv. “Progressive Education” – should be more practical (Industrial Arts, Home
Ec, Applied Sciences and CRITICAL THINKING)
v. Believed democracy could overcome capitalism
 vi. End of child L, limitation on worker’s hours, end of urban poverty
2. The Women’s Rights Movement – middle class women were very prominent in
progressive movement
a. Jane Addams
i. One of the most prominent figures of the Prog’ve Era
ii. Obtained University educ and sought career in social reform – couldn’t
find work though due to hiring discrimination
iii. Founded “Hull House” a settlement house where other middle class
women could live and work respectably
iv. Known as “mother of social work”
b. Maternalism and Feminism
i. Maternalism – Victorian idea of the woman’s natural characteristics and
(consequently, their) social role: ‘fairer’, more sensitive, less rational,
should be restricted to the home, primarily looking after children
ii. They turned maternalism on its head by extending the concept of the
“home” to the “community” enabling them to work outside the home
iii. Sexual double std
1. Also homosexual double std – “we’re just the best of friends”
iv. Respectability – young women living on their own not considered
respectable, but Addams found a loophole by living with other young
women
1. Other choices were marry, domestic life, teach, nurse, none of
which appealed to Addams
c. Temperance and Prohibition – “War against the demon house”
i. 19th century: belief was that the problems of the working poor stemmed
from alcohol – “waste their money on alc rather than save it for self-
improvement”
1. Lead to laziness & gambling; violence b/w men in public or
towards their family
ii. Temperance
1. Designed to convince men to “take the pledge” to abstain or limit
their consumption of alcohol
2. Movement spearheaded by mid-class women
3. Importance of tavern underestimated (not known by middle class
women): cashing of paycheques, holding one’s liquor rather than
inebriation the focus – women didn’t know this because they
were never in the tavern
4. Belief that men’s natural rationality would emerge once it is no
longer suppressed by alc consumption
iii. 1911 – _____ – 250K members – largest women-run movement of all
time at the time
 iv. 1916 – argued for a const’l amendment banning the production, sale and
transport of alc and got it (18th; 1917)
1. Only amendment ever repealed with another amendment (21st)
v. Helped organize crime, grow, thrive and become very prosperous
d. The Vote – don’t use this for exam, you missed due to shitty internet
i. The ultimate issue for the women’s movement was enfranchisement
ii. Many men opposed it on the grounds that women were represented
already by their husbands and fathers
1. Women do not “have time for politics”
iii. Others feared enfranchisement of women would mean prohibition
1. Indeed, prohibition was a reason why many women fought for
suffrage
iv. Used paternalist arguments: politics needs their natural sensitivity and
morality
3. Progressive Policies
a. The progressives
i. Rejected the language of class conflict or revolution – they wanted to
democratically control it and use it to pass legislation
ii. Argued that politicians were being bought
1. Machine politics (“I’ll scratch your back, you scratch mine”) – they
did it with votes rather than big donors – if you’re neighbourhood
votes for Boss Tweed your street gets paved, if not, no paving
2. Progressives wanted to reform of the electoral system because of
this
iii. Concentrated their efforts in local races, but got a high profile national
candidate: Teddy Roosevelt
1. Born in NYC, a sickly asthmatic
2. Elected to NY State assembly where he was made fun of for being
effeminate and weak
3. “Gets strong”, leaves NY politics, then goes off to live on a ranch
in North Dakota – develops cult of the strenuous life – the 20th
century man should be a combo of the mind and body
a. Crisis of masculinity of the (late) 19th century – changing
nature of masculinity
i. 1850’s: man of intellect (classist and racist) and
rationality – an individualistic man who makes
something of himself
1. Crisis driven by working for somebody else
– take your boss’ shit all day –
emasculating!
 2. Take on the “barbarian virtues” – racist, and
an homage
ii. Early 20th Century: takes on the character of the
cult of the strenuous man’s ideal
4. At age 39, Secy of Navy – quits job to form an elite unit to fight in
Spanish-American war (Rough Riders)
5. Decided to create an elite group called the “Rough Riders” and go
to Cuba to fight the war
a. Charging up San Juan hill (led to much loss of life, but let
him “win the day”)
b. His manly, warhero, famous image parlayed into the job of
VPOTUS – recruited by Repubs
6. His exploits detailed in the media made him famous, propelled
him to the Vice Presidency (Became President when McKinley was
assassinated in 1901)
a. Redefines the office of POTUS
b. Bully pulpit – his ability to speak directly to Americans, and
once you get them talking, you can pressure congress to
do what the ppl want
i. Little power as compared w/ congress, POTUS
leads troops (but only if congress declares war),
POTUS signs bill into law (but cannot initiate
legislation) – many POTUSs accepted the
limitations of this role, but not Roosevelt
ii. Used bully pulpit to bolster conservation
movement
1. Any site of cultural heritage becomes a
national monument (e.g. Grand Canyon)
a. Before, it was largely battlefields
iii. EXPANDING ROLE OF THE PRESIDENT (Lincoln,
Roosevelt, etc.) GOOD EXAM Q
1. Inconceivable in the time of G. Washington
that you could even make it known who the
candidates are across the country, much
less the POTUS to have this degree of
power
7. Monopolies – rails against ‘em, enforces pre-existing rules (based
on an ideology of equality of opportunity): no supporter of worker
uprising though, very much a capitalist
a. Regulates areas of public interest (pharma, foods, etc.)
b. End to patent medicine (making claims that cannot be
 c. Enormous supporter of African American and women’s
rights
i. Invited Booker T. Washington to the WH
1. First blk man invited to the WH to eat
d. All his policies towards individualism: truly believed in
“American Dream” and was a populist
i. Accomplishments were mixed
ii. Illustrated by quotes on race
e. See slides for rest – THERE’S LOTS HERE
b. National Politics and Teddy Roosevelt – SEE SLIDES
i. Even contradictory here, goes and kills exotic animals in Africa after
presidency
c. The 1912 Presidential Election – 4 corporate (lawyers or lobbyists, didn’t here)
i. Says he will run again – wins primaries but the insiders steal it from him
ii. Roosevelt faction storms out – he and his supporters run in the election
third party, calls himself a “new nationalist” – an aggressive populism,
most progressive major party candidate ever
1. Min. wage for working women
2. Women’s suffrage
3. More corporate regulation
4. 8 hour day
iii. Dems nom a (less) left candidate as well
iv. Socialists led by Eugene Debs – outlefts em all (give the factories to the
workers!)
1. Wins a million votes
v. TR shot, “takes more than that to kill a bull moose!”
vi. Wilson wins by an electoral college landslide, benefiting from Debs-Taft-
TR split
Bio: Jacob Riis
 Danish Immigrant to US and photographer
 Used new photographic technologies to venture into the slums of NY and take photos in
low light
 Gave “magic lantern” shows (i.e. primitive slide show) and published “How the Other
Half Lives” of these photos
 Images shocked the middle class – did not believe stories written by those living in the
slums – you can deny someone’s written acct, but not their photographs
o Became a bestseller
o Images of brutal ramshackle housing, many crammed into a tiny, dirty one-room
apts, depictions of child L, homeless orphan children
  Wrote: “The poor are victims…not of their own making…” something like that look it up
o Was a progressive
 Riis pioneered “muckraking journalism” – journalism designed to provoke action – rake
up the muck and force us to deal with it
o Popular in the gilded age – mags revealed actions of robber barons,

Bio: Upton Sinclair – good quote

 Famous muckraking journalist and socialist
 Novel “The Jungle” exposed the conditions in meat packing plants in CHI
 Revealed low wages, dangerous conditions, unsanitary practices (e.g. sweeping up all of
the nastiness from the floor (e.g. dirt, dead rats, animal parts that fell on the floor) into
the meat grinder – “potted ham”)
 Sinclair: “I aimed at the public’s heart and by accident I hit it in the stomach” – was
supposed to disgust people ab the workers’ conditions, but it just disgusted them ab
their meat
Bio: Frederick L. Olmstead
 Father of the “Urban parks” movement and of landscape architecture
 Designed C. Park and many other urban parks
 Social Activist who believed in the power of nature to make urban life more livable and
solve urban problems
Salvation Army
 Originated in GBR in 1865
 Went into the industrial city to “rescue those living in sin”
o Also women who went astray: single mothers/prostitutes
 Followers wore uniforms adopted milt discipline, attempted to appeal to working class
using their own music (brass bands)
o Also pandered in their church structure: pub-style come-and-go
 No booze tho…
 Reflected social gospel’s message of creating “Kingdom of heaven on earth”
 Social Gospel – arguably the most important religious movement of its time
o A religious movement primarily interested in social justice
o Questioned the idea that there’s life after death, or that JC was all that special
o An evangelical movement: breakaway from institutional churches (like the
Catholic Church)
o Rebuked church hierarchy – priesthood of the leity
o Were against capitalism and wealth inequality due to it being an impediment to
 Believed they had the responsibility
 o Rebuked the idea that poor were keeping themselves down via drinking,
gambling, etc.
Another attempt at reaching and reforming for the poor by the evangelical movement: YMCA
(Young Men’s Christian Association)
 Offered young exercise, a room for the night at a fair price
 Hoped to save the souls of those who attended