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1. The Progressive Era
3. Theodore Roosevelt – the president no one wanted. 1900 - Ohio politician tells the Republican party not to nominate Roosevelt as VP candidate.
Roosevelt had upset Republican bosses in NY who wanted him out, so Thomas Platt pushed for the nomination
4. Theodore Roosevelt Sickly as a child.
Elected to NY state legislature at 23
1884 his mother and wife died on the same day.
Left NY to “become a cowboy”
Came back and became police commissioner
Eventually became Secretary of the Navy
5. TR’s second political life Resigned to fight in the Spanish American War
Returned from war and elected governor of NY
6. TR – Man of contradictions from one of the nation's wealthiest families
the first president born in a city
a warlike man attacked business as "malefactors of great wealth.“
one of the greatest conservationists
won the Nobel Peace Prize.
7. Progressivism Dominated US politics in one form or another from 1901-1980.
The notion that government can be an instrument of reform.
Government should act as an activist entity – the complete opposite of laissez faire.
8. Progressive “Agenda” Graduated income tax.
Inheritance tax.
National banking system.
Government regulatory system
commissions of experts to ensure fairness, purity of products.
9. Government is to play a vital role in the American Dream Relevance in education.
Health and sexual education
Vocational training
Move away from memorization
Increased literacy
African American literacy increased from 43% to 77%.
Public health
Fights against diseases like hookworm, ringworm and diphtheria.
Increased pasteurization of milk.
Urban progressives
Public parks
Museums
Water and sewer systems
Elimination of “red-light” district.
10. Social reforms and social interaction Advocated “welfare capitalism”
Old-age pensions
Public works programs
In art created works that emphasized abstract and modern
In history, scholars emphasized conflict and dissonance.
A new vocabulary: “feminist,” “social worker,” “social science,” “human rights,” “conservation.”
11. The law of unintended consequences Progressivism is driven by college educated, upper-middle class values.
Elimination of red-light districts.
Prostitution organized in a whole different way.
Elimination of red-light districts leads to “street walker.”
Control shifts from women to men.
Increase in corruption and payoffs
12. City elections Urban politics deeply corrupt
Institution of city managers in place of mayors.
Institution of at-large elections.
Politicians now have to run city-wide rather than in neighborhoods, and this requires access to money.
13. Sanitary Meat and Meat Inspection The Jungle by Upton Sinclair
Congress passes Sanitary Meat Act in 1906.
Europe boycotted US meat – SMA applied only to meat for export.
Meat packing companies asked that the companies themselves pay for inspections.
Only the larger companies could afford it – so regulation eliminated the smaller companies.
14. Why did Progressivism arise? Partly accident – McKinley’s assassination.
Muckrakers – investigative journalism that looked into everything.
Social gospel – religious idealism inspired many to apply religious principles to social problems.
15. Period of ferment Margaret Sanger –
1916 opened nation’s first birth control clinic.
Jailed because of the Comstock Act.
Eventually fled to Europe
Margaret Sanger almost single-handedly out birth control into the public debate
16. W.E.B. DuBois Wrote the key work in how historians interpret the era called Reconstruction.
Through the 1930s – accepted version of Reconstruction was:
Slaves get vote
Corruption reigns as blacks “take over.”
“Courageous” whites retake control and eliminate corruption.
DuBois demolished EVERY one of these notions and demonstrated how brutally African Americas were repressed in the aftermath of the Civil War.
17. Labor Unions Roosevelt intervened on the side of labor – something no president ever had done.
1905 International Workers of the World gained membership
favored worker control of factories
American Socialist Party
Routinely garnered 1 million+ votes in national elections.
Newspaper circulation of 200,000.
120 elected officials, including several mayors.
18. Woodrow Wilson Elected in 1912
1st president to personally address congress since John Adams.
Moralistic in politics
After Mexico began revolution in 1913, he said “we will teach Latin Americans to elect good men.”
Invaded Tampico and Vera Cruz to help oppose the Mexican government.
Authorized US army to cross Mexican border repeatedly in 1916 to try to apprehend Francisco “Pancho” Villa.
19. The Birth of A Nation
20. Progressive Agenda passed under Wilson Lower tariffs and progressive income tax
Federal Trade Commission
Clayton Anti-trust Act
Federal Reserve system
Workers compensation established
Four constitutional amendments
16th – permitted income tax
17th – direct election of senators
18th – prohibition of alcohol
19th – gave women the right to vote.