TH2/7/13; T1/25/12; F1/7/11; M1/11/10; W 1/14/09
Roots of the
Progressive
Movement
(Ch. 22.2; pp. 625-630)
I. Early Roots
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
middle-class intellectuals
concerned over problems of industrialization
wanted to fix urban & work problems
reformers, not radicals
fix system, not overturn it
local solutions → state → later federal
used rational “scientific” approach of late 19th
century to fix problems
II. Intellectual Roots
• turn-of-century intellectuals questioned Social
Darwinism
• solve problems through science
• Thorstein Veblen (The Theory of the Leisure Class
– 1899)
• William James (Pragmatism – 1907; Democracy &
Social Ethics – 1902)
• Charles Beard (Economic History of US – 1913)
• Herbert Croly (The Promise of American Life –
1909)
III. Problems
A. Education
•
•
•
•
•
John Dewey – Democracy & Education (1916)
“learning by doing”
progressive education
social action
enrollment in schools skyrockets
– 7M to 23M 1870-1920
III. Problems (cont.)
B. Muckrakers
• reformers, social critics
• used new magazines
– McClure’s, Colliers, New Republic
• Henry Demarest Lloyd – Wealth Against
Commonwealth – 1894 (Chi.)
– Standard Oil
• Frank Norris – The Octopus (1901)
– RR’s
• David Graham Phillips – Susan Lenox: Her Rise and Fall
(1917)
– prostitution
III. Problems (cont.)
B. Muckrakers (cont.)
• Theodore Dreiser – The Financier (1912)
– lack of social conscience in business
• Jacob Riis – Other Half Lives (1890s)
• Lincoln Steffens – The Shame of the Cities (1904)
– political corruption – St. Louis
• Ida Tarbell – History of Standard Oil Co. (1904)
– corporate excess
• David Graham Phillips – Treason of the Senate
(1906)
• Upton Sinclair – The Jungle –(1906)
– meatpacking
III. Problems (cont.)
C. Political Corruption
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
try to stop political corruption in cities
fought political machines (ex: Tammany Hall)
usually m-c and/or wealthy elites
often Republicans
wanted permanent structural change
city-manager system [compare to civil service reform]
focused on new more democratic ideas:
•
•
•
•
initiative
referendum
recall
direct primary
• culminates w/ 17th Amendment (direct election of
Senators) - 1913
• reforms later corrupted
III. Problems (cont.)
D. Urban Blight
• Daniel Burnham – Chi.
• built on Frederick Law Olmstead
• urban beautification
• clean up cities – garbage, street cleaning,
tenement reform, public transportation
• successful – infant mortality, TB rates decline
III. Problems (cont.)
E. Corporate Regulation/Factory Work
• Frederick Taylor – scientific approach to
business
• Gov. Robert La Follette (WI) – “Fighting Bob”
• “Wisconsin Idea”
• fought for state reforms
• more state regulations & laws
• all at state level (later federal)
• child labor & 10-hour days
• impact of Triangle Shirt Waist Fire (1911)