1. Part 1: Origins and Ideas
The Progressive Era
Part 1: Origins and Ideas

2. What was Progressivism?
Progressivism was a widespread belief linking the idea of progress to the idea of government-imposed reform.

3. Characteristics of the Progressive Movement
Diffuse and Diverse
Elitist
Tended toward Darwinism and Atheism

4. Origins of the Progressive Movement
Charles Darwin
On the Origin of Species,
1859

5. Aspects of the Progressivism
Philosophy:
William James
Pragmatism

6. Aspects of the Progressivism
Education:
John Dewey
“Progressive Education”

7. Aspects of the Progressivism
Journalism:
“Muckraking”
Lincoln Steffens
The Shame of the Cities
Ida Tarbell
History of Standard Oil Company
Upton Sinclair
The Jungle
The Meat Inspection Act and the Pure Food and Drug Act (1906)
“I aimed at the public’s heart, and by accident I hit it in the stomach.”
~Upton Sinclair

8. Aspects of the Progressivism
Religion:
“The Social Gospel”
Walter Rauschenbusch

9. Aspects of the Progressivism
Law:
Sociological Jurisprudence
Louis Brandeis
Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr.