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The Progressive Period: (How much “progress” have we made?)

The Progressive Period: (How much “progress” have we made?). (circa1900-1910). “Currents of Progressivism”.

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The Progressive Period: (How much “progress” have we made?)

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  1. The Progressive Period:(How much “progress” have we made?) (circa1900-1910)

  2. “Currents of Progressivism” • “Progressives could be found in all classes, regions, and races. They shared a belief that America needed a new social consciousness to cope with the problems brought on by the enormous rush of economic and social change in the post-Civil War decades. Yet progressivism was no unified movement with a single set of principles.” (page 723)

  3. Social Control and Its Limits • Edward Ross argued that society needed an “ethical elite” of citizens “who have at heart the general welfare and know what kinds of conduct will promote this welfare.” • This was popular among “many middle- and upper-class Protestant progressives who feared that immigrants and large cities threatened the stability of American democracy.”

  4. Progressive ideas and issues (a partial list) • “Muckraking” Environment • Workers’ rights Birth control • Civil rights “Trust busting” • Taxes Prohibition • Democracy World War I • Financial oversight • Urban reform • http://www.uic.edu/jaddams/hull/ • http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/peace/laureates/1931/addams-bio.html

  5. Activities of the United States in the Caribbean, 1898-1930

  6. Working-class Communities and Protest • The Industrial Revolution was born in the nineteenth century, but matured in the twentieth: • In 1900, out of a total labor force of 28.5 million workers, 16 million were industrial workers and 11 million worked on the farm. • By 1920, out of a total labor force of 42 million, almost 29 million were industrial workers, but farm laborers had fallen to just over 10 million workers.

  7. New immigrants • On the eve of World War I, close to 60% of the industrial labor force was foreign-born. • By country: • Italy 3.157 million, 22% • Austria-Hungary 3.047 million, 21% • Russia and Poland 2.524 million, 17% • Mexico 268,000, 2% • Japan 213,000, 2% • China 41,000, < 1%

  8. Immigration to the United States, 1900-1920 (by area of origin)

  9. The IWW: “One Big Union” • Many of these immigrants entered the work force at the lowest levels, including in factories and mines. • In reaction to (still bad) working conditions, union organization rebounded in this period, with both the AFL and Industrial Workers of the World seeing substantial growth in membership.

  10. The IWW: “One Big Union” • Quote: “The working class and the employing class have nothing in common…Between these two classes a struggle must go on until the workers of the world unite as a class, take possession of the earth and the machinery of production, and abolish the wage system.” • http://www.iww.org/

  11. Labor Union Membership, 1897-1920

  12. Women & social reform • Opportunities for (middle class) women increased as society changed; more men were working in white collar jobs, children were going to school, family sizes were falling. • Women were becoming increasingly more educated: • In 1870, 1% of college-age Americans had attended college, about 20% women • By 1910, 5% had attended college, but 40% were women

  13. Women’s Christian Temperance Union • The largest women’s organization in American history (250,000 members). • Local chapters branched out into many other issues, including staffing/helping homeless shelters, Sunday schools, prison reform, child nurseries, and suffrage -- thus it was a political outlet/forum for non-voters!

  14. Women’s Suffrage Before 1900

  15. “Birth Control” • The aforementioned phrase was coined by Margaret Sanger around 1913. • She was writing a series of articles on contraception ideas for a socialist newspaper (she was also an organizer for the IWW) when postal officials confiscated the paper on the basis of obscenity laws! • Would start her own magazine, Woman Rebel.

  16. Racism and “Accommodation” • At the turn of the century, four-fifths of the nation’s 10 million African Americans still lived in the South. • One the most influential black leaders of the day -- Booker T. Washington -- was also from the South (born a slave in 1856), which helps to explain his “accommodation” position. • http://www.tuskegee.edu/ • http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/aaohtml/aopart6.html • http://www.nps.gov/bowa/

  17. W.E.B. Du Bois and the NAACP • Conversely, Du Bois was from Massachusetts, and became the first African American to receive a Ph.D. from Harvard. • Published The Souls of Black Folk (1903), which declared “the problem of the twentieth century is the problem of the color line.” • Explored concept of “double consciousness” (tension between African heritage and desire to assimilate as an American).

  18. W.E.B. Du Bois and the NAACP • Du Bois criticized Washington for accepting “the alleged inferiority of the Negro” -- he believed that the black community should fight for the right to vote, for civic equality, and for higher education opportunities. • The NAACP was founded in 1909, with Du Bois the founder and editor of The Crisis. • http://www.naacp.org/content/main/ • http://www.naacp.org/pages/naacp-history-w.e.b.-dubois • http://dubois.fas.harvard.edu/ • http://www.americaslibrary.gov/aa/dubois/aa_dubois_subj.html • http://www.duboislc.org/html/DuBoisBio.html

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