1. THE PROGRESSIVE ERA

2. The Agrarian Movement Problems of Farmers: 1870 – 1900
Increased farm production led to more crops per acre but falling food prices
Farmers had to ship goods to market and were at the mercy of railroad rates
Farmers were constantly in debt, and a poor harvest could throw them into chaos
Grange Movement 1876
Original goal was to reduce rural isolation
Soon turned into a group demanding economic and political reforms
Helped get Interstate Commerce Act of 1887 passed to regulate railroads rates

3. Populist Party:
A national 3 party representing laborers, farmers, and industrial workers
Populist Platform 1982 supported William Jennings Bryan for President
Unlimited coinage of silver
Direct election of Senators
Term limits for President and Secret ballots
Immigration restrictions
A graduated income tax
Third Parties – helped to educate voters on special issues; provide an outlet for minority grievance; and pressure major parties to adopt their ideas

4. The Progressive Movement
Goals – sought to correct political and economic injustices from industrialization
Roots of Progressivism
Social Gospel Movement called for social reforms such as abolition of child labor and safer working conditions. So instead of seeing the social problems as God’s will they emphasized Christian duty to help those who were less fortunate .
Impact of Progressivism
Brought many social reforms to society

5. The Social Reformers
Jane Addams, Hull House – settlement house an all purpose community center for poor people living in crowded city neighborhoods.
Ida B. Wells – lynching (murder by hanging) main tactic to terrorize African Americans; started an anti-lynching crusade.
W.E.B. DuBois - 1st African American to earn a Ph.D. from Harvard, noted historian, and a founder of the NAACP; while Booker T. Washington argued for gradual equality, DuBois demanded immediate racial equality.
Anti-Defamation League – a Jewish organization opposed to religious prejudice.
Progressives also organized charities, clubs, and other associations i.e. YMCA and YWCA

6. Famous Muckrakers
Jacob Riis photographed conditions of the poor in How the Other Half Lives. His book examined the conditions of the poor in America’s cities.
Ida Tarbell in her History of the Standard Oil Company 1902, showed how John D. Rockefeller’s rise was based on ruthless business practices.
Lincoln Steffens exposed corruption in city and state governments in his book, The Shame of the Cities 1904.
Frank Norris wrote The Octopus, a fictional work that depicted the stranglehold of railroads over California farmers.
Upton Sinclair, in his novel The Jungle 1906, described the unsanitary practices of the meat-packing industry.

7. Theodore Roosevelt: Square Deal
Helped break up “bad trusts”
Square Deal
Passed laws to protect consumer health
Meat Inspection Act 1906
Pure Food and Drug Act 1906
Increased the power of the Interstate Commerce Commission to help regulate certain industries
Worked to conserve the nation’s natural resources by drawing attention to need to conserve forests, parks, and wildlife
Withheld federal lands from public sales

8. Woodrow Wilson: New Freedom
The New Freedom program sought to control business practices, promote greater competition, and lower tariff rates
National Park Service – protected public parks and monuments
16th Amendment – gave Congress the power to tax personal income
Federal Reserve Act – created to regulate the amount of money in circulation
Anti-Trust Legislation: Clayton Antitrust Act increased the federal government’s power to prevent unfair business practices

9. Women’s Suffrage Movement
Seneca Falls Convention 1848 – birth of women’s suffrage.
Susan B. Anthony – prominent reformer, attempted to vote in Rochester, NY, on the grounds that she was a citizen under the 14th Amendment. Supreme Court 1874 ruled that women were citizens but not granted the “privilege” for voting.
Elizabeth Cady Stanton - helped form the National American Woman Suffrage Association.
19th Amendment 1920 – established that no state could deny a citizen the right to vote based on sex.
The passage of the 19th Amendment was the last notable reform of the Progressive era.

10. American Literature
Realism – nothing more or less then the truthful treatment of material
Horatio Alger ( ) praised hard work and discipline, wrote rags to riches stories.
Mark Twain ( ) reflected the differences between pre-Civil War society and afterward.
William Dean Howells ( ) important magazine editor who promoted realism
Jack London ( ) wrote adventure stories, wrote Call of the Wild.
Henry James ( ) master of psychological novel of the story unfolds through the consciousness, wrote Portrait of a Lady.
Kate Chopin ( ) notable woman novelist, The Awakening.

11. American Art
James NcNeill Whistler ( ) influenced by modern French painters
Winslow Homer ( ) known for scenes of the sea, boats, and coastlines
Thomas Eakins ( ) portraits of friends and family, people in the arts and sciences
Henry Ossawa Tanner ( )African-American, focused on everyday scenes
Frederick Remington ( ) focused on American West
Charles Russell ( ) also focused on American West

12. James McNeill Whistler
Nocturne: Blue and Gold - Old Battersea Bridge
Image Arrangement in Grey and Black: Portrait of the Painter's Mother

13. Winslow Homer
Northester
Cloud Shadows

14. Thomas Eakins
Baby at Play
The Gross Clinic

15. Henry Ossawa Tanner
The Arch
The Banjo Lesson

16. Frederick Remington
The Mountain
Blackfoot return from a Raid

17. Charles Russell
Planning The Attach