The Rise of Progressivism

1873 - 1920

Mulberry Street on New York City’s Lower East Side, Around 1900

Introduction• Rapid

industrialization & urbanization created problems

• Impose order on growing chaos

• Optimistic vision

Introduction, cont.• Society was capable of

improvement

• Growth & progress could not continue to occur recklessly

• Intervention by govt. was necessary

The Progressive Impulse• Spirit of

antimonopoly

• Importance of social cohesion

• Organization & efficiency

The Muckrakers and the Social Gospel

• Reform-minded journalists

• Social, economic, & political injustices

• Exposing scandal & corruption

• Targeted trusts

The Muckrakers and the Social Gospel, cont.

• Ida Tarbell & Standard Oil

• Child labor• Railroads• Immigrant ghettoes• Labor unions• Governments

The Muckrakers and the Social Gospel, cont.

• Pursuit of social justice

• Social Gospel mvmt.

• Redeem nation’s cities

• The Salvation Army

The Settlement House Movement

• Belief that environment shaped individual development

• An improvement in the conditions of poor was needed

The Settlement House Movement, cont.

• Jane Addams & Hull House (1889)

• Staffed by educated, middle class

• Immigrant neighborhoods

• Social work

The Allure of Expertise

• Building political & economic institutions capable of managing a modern society

• Scientific management & Taylorism

• Thorstein Veblen & A Theory of the Leisure Class (1899)

The Professions• Expansion in # of

administrative & professional tasks

• “New middle class” valuing education & accomplishment

The Professions, cont.• American Medical

Association (1901)• Lawyers & professional

bar associations (1916)• Guarding entry into

profession• Prestige, status• Businessmen• Farmers

Women and the Professions

• Mostly excluded from emerging professions

• Middle-class women entering professional careers

• Settlement houses, social work

• Teaching, nursing, librarians, academia

Women and Reform

• Prominent role of women in reform mvmts. is a significant feature of progressivism

The “New Woman”• Almost all income-

producing activity had moved out of home & into factory or office

• Women having fewer children

• Home & family less all-consuming

The Clubwomen• Effort to extend

influence beyond traditional sphere

• Charlotte Perkins Gilman & Women and Economics (1908)

Women’s Suffrage• Lrgst. reform mvmt.

• Stanton & “natural rights” women deserved the same rights as men

Women’s Suffrage, cont.• Some argued for

distinctive female sphere

• National American Woman Suffrage Association (NAWSA)

• Carrie Chapman Catt & Anna Howard Shaw

Women’s Suffrage, cont.• Suffrage would allow

women to bring distinct virtues to social problems

• WWI gave final push

• Nineteenth Amendment (1920)

Women’s Issues• Margaret Sanger and

birth control• Lochner v. New York

(1905)• Muller v. Oregon (1903)

OR law barred women from working more than 10 hrs. a day

• Brandeis brief

The Assault on the Parties• Before society could

be reformed, govt. would have to be

• Parties as a source of corruption

Municipal Reform• Impact of party rule

most damaging in cities

• Opposition to reform • City bosses, special

interests, recent immigrants

• Commissions & city mangers

Statehouse Progressivism• Circumvent legislatures by increasing power of

electorate

• Initiative (submitting new legislation directly to voters)

• Referendum (action of the legis. can be returned to the voters for approval)

• Direct primary & recall

Statehouse Progressivism, cont.

• Robert M. LaFollette (WI)

• Regulated RRs & utilities, regulate workplace & provided workmen’s comp., initiatives, referendums

African Americans and Reform

• Booker T. Washington

• Founder of Tuskegee Institute (1881)

• Immediate self-improvement through education in agricultre & the trades vs. long-range social change

African Americans and Reform, cont.

• Atlanta Compromise (1895)

• “Cast down your bucket where you are”

• Encouraged African Americans to stop fighting segregation & second-class citizenship

African Americans and Reform, cont.

• W. E. B. DuBois• The Souls of Black

Folk (1903)• Full university

education• Aspire to professions• “Talented Tenth”• Immediate progress

on civil rights

African Americans and Reform, cont.

• Niagra Mvmt. (1905)

• End of segregation, voting rights, & equal ed. opportunities

• NAACP

• Fighting for equal rights

Crusades for Order and Reform

• Eliminate alcohol

• Curb prostitution

• Regulate divorce

The Temperance Crusade• Necessary step in

restoring order to society

• Major resurgence in 1870s

• Women’s Christian Temperance Union (WCTU)

• Frances Willard• Eighteenth Amendment

(1919)

Immigration Restriction

• Some argued efforts at assimilation had failed

• Eugenics – human inequalities were hereditary

• Blocked for a time

The Dream of Socialism• Radical critiques of

capitalism (1900 – 1914)

• Socialist Party of America

• Industrial Workers of the World (IWW or Wobblies)

• Single union for all workers

• Abolition of “wage slave” system

Decentralization & Regulation

• Govt. to play a more active role in regulating & planning economic life