The Yen for Reform

From the “Gilded Age” to the “Progressive Era”

• Progressive Era – 1896-1920?

• What is progress?

The Problem(s)

• How to manage change– Immigration– Urbanization– Industrialization– Growth of wealth– Corruption– Poverty

A Dark Beginning

• Populist hopes thwarted in 1896• Jim Crow grows in South– Failure of biracial coalition– Reversal of Reconstruction

“Redemption”

• White elite in South comes to power in 1880s-early 1900s

• Cuts budgets, schools, hospitals• Makes unemployment illegal• Rents out convicts as slaves– “One dies, get another”

Everyone Is Equal but Some Are More Equal than Others…

• South imposes poll taxes, literacy tests, etc. to vote (1896-1906)

• Plessy v. Ferguson (1896)

An Era of Accommodation

• Booker T. Washington (1856-1915)• Black middle class builds own institutions

• Meanwhile, American Federation of Labor replaces Knights of Labor in 1890s

The American Empire

• Conquered the West• Now look to Cuba, Philippines, Hawaii• Spanish American War (1898) – the “splendid

little war”• “Remember the Maine!”

The Paradox of Progressivism

• Middle class and elite movement for reform• Adopts some of Populist ideas• Meant to better the lot of the poor, workers,

women

The Paradox of Progressivism

• Middle class and elite movement for reform• Adopts some of Populist ideas• Meant to better the lot of the poor, workers,

women

• A movement without an ideology?

Theories of Progressivism

• Status anxiety

• Anglo cultural resistance to immigrants, blacks, poor

• Modernizing ideal of efficiency, order

• Need to tame monopoly

Progressive Women

• Settlement Houses• Fight for birth control• Fight for right to vote• “City Beautiful”

The Rise of Socialism

• Originally limited to immigrants, ex: Germans• Became significant 3rd party under Eugene

Debs of Indiana

The Wobblies

• Industrial Workers of the World• Way more militant• “One big union”• Advocated general strike• Fought for free speech

Election of 1912• Socialist Debs vs. Republican President William

H. Taft• Progressive Theodore Roosevelt• and Democrat Woodrow Wilson

What TR Had Been Up To

• Took over when McKinley assassinated (1901) • Trust-busting• Conservation• Handed reins to Taft in 1908

The Debate

• Roosevelt’s “New Nationalism”– Idea that big business is here to stay– Must be regulated– Heavy taxes on the rich– Early idea of social security/universal healthcare

The Debate

• Wilson’s “New Freedom”– Less emphasis on government programs– Tougher anti-trust laws– Right to unionize– Support for small business

Two Versions of Same Idea

• In office, Wilson pursued policies similar to Roosevelt and Populists– Banned child labor– New protection for right to unionize and strike– New regulation of business– Federal Reserve (1913)