Understanding the Progressive Era in U.S. History

Oct 9, 2024

Take quiz

Crash Course U.S. History: Progressive Era

Introduction to Progressives

  • Speaker: John Green
  • Era: Progressive Era
  • Focus: Solutions to inequality and injustice
  • Overlap: With Gilded Age
  • Irony: Term 'Progressive Era' associated with restrictions like Prohibition

Context

  • Gilded Age: Rise of American industrial capitalism
  • Criticism: Problems associated with capitalism
  • Progressive Era: Attempts to solve these problems

Political Changes

  • Responding to a rapidly changing political system
  • Tension: Between participatory democracy and effective governance

Social Concerns

  • Industrial capitalist society issues
  • Labor Issues: Low wages, long hours, poor conditions

Muckraking Journalism

  • Definition: Exposing industrial and political abuses
  • Examples: "The Jungle" by Upton Sinclair leading to Pure Food and Drug Act, Meat Inspection Act

Child Labor

  • Photographer: Lewis Hine
  • Impact: Laws limiting child labor

Labor Movements

  • Unions: Workers organized to reduce hours, raise pay
  • Employer Initiatives: Paid better wages
  • Example: Henry Ford's higher wages for workers

Radical Progressive Movements

  • Wobblies: Industrial Workers of the World
  • Goal: Revolution to end capitalism and state
  • Progressive Ideas: Economic progress, distribution of wealth

Mass Consumption Society

  • Consumer Culture: New goods, advertising linked to freedom

Industrialization Concerns

  • Labor Problem: Mechanization reduced skilled work opportunities
  • Taylorism: Scientific management for productivity

Government Solutions

  • Social Legislation: Minimum wage, unemployment insurance
  • Local Level Success: Public control over utilities, schools

Tension in Governance

  • Democratic Participation vs. Expertise: Direct elections and expert governance

Jim Crow Laws and Disfranchisement

  • Voting Suppression: Literacy tests, poll taxes
  • Landmark Case: Plessy v. Ferguson upheld segregation

African American Response

  • Booker T. Washington: Vocational education and economic success
  • W.E.B. Du Bois: Full civil rights and political activism

Conclusion

  • Modern Parallels: Immigration and economic justice today
  • Methods: Organization, journalism, activism
  • Challenges: Mobilizing diverse interests in a pluralistic society

The Progressive Era shows attempts to address issues still relevant today, albeit with different methods and a more complex societal structure.