Cambridge/APUSH Chapter 27 Vocabulary

Social Gospel

• Meaning: Protestant reform movement applying Christian ethics to social problems

• Goals: Address poverty, inequality, poor working conditions, child labor

• Key idea: Society could be perfected; government should help the needy

• Impact: Influenced Progressive reformers and labor laws

Muckrakers

• Meaning: Journalists who exposed corruption and abuses in politics and business

• Purpose: Raise public awareness and push for reform

• Major magazines: McClure’s, Cosmopolitan

• Impact: Led to Progressive legislation (food safety, trust regulation)

Initiative

• Meaning: Process allowing voters to propose laws directly

• Purpose: Reduce control of political machines and special interests

• Significance: Expanded democracy during Progressive Era

Referendum

• Meaning: Allows voters to approve or reject laws passed by legislatures

• Goal: Increase popular participation in government

• Progressive reform: Empowered citizens

Recall

• Meaning: Allows voters to remove elected officials before term ends

• Purpose: Hold politicians accountable

• Used in: Progressive states like Wisconsin and California

Australian Ballot

• Meaning: Secret ballot printed by the government

• Purpose: Reduce voter intimidation and political machine influence

• Impact: Increased fairness in elections

Muller v. Oregon (1908)

• Issue: Constitutionality of limiting women’s work hours

• Decision: Upheld labor protections for women

• Significance: Accepted social science evidence (Brandeis Brief)

• Limitation: Reinforced gender roles

Lochner v. New York (1905)

• Issue: State law limiting bakery workers’ hours

• Decision: Struck down law as violation of “freedom of contract”

• Significance: Hindered labor reform

• Era: Laissez-faire judicial thinking

Elkins Act (1903)

• Purpose: Strengthen regulation of railroads

• Policy: Banned rebates and kickbacks

• President: Theodore Roosevelt

• Significance: Boosted Interstate Commerce Commission (ICC)

Meat Inspection Act (1906)

• Purpose: Ensure sanitary meatpacking practices

• Cause: The Jungle by Upton Sinclair

• Impact: Federal inspection of meat products

Pure Food and Drug Act (1906)

• Purpose: Ban mislabeled and harmful foods and drugs

• Impact: Required accurate labeling

• Significance: Consumer protection milestone

Hetch Hetchy Valley

• Issue: Dam in Yosemite National Park

• Supporters: Gifford Pinchot (conservation)

• Opponents: John Muir (preservation)

• Significance: Conservation vs. preservation debate

Dollar Diplomacy

• President: William Howard Taft

• Policy: Use economic investment to influence foreign nations

• Goal: Expand U.S. influence without military force

• Regions: Latin America, East Asia

Payne–Aldrich Bill (1909)

• Purpose: Lower tariffs

• Outcome: Tariffs remained high

• Impact: Split Republican Party

• Criticism: Progressives felt betrayed by Taft

New Freedom

• President: Woodrow Wilson

• Focus: Restore competition, break up trusts

• Key laws: Clayton Antitrust Act, Federal Reserve Act

• Philosophy: Small government intervention

New Nationalism

• Leader: Theodore Roosevelt

• Focus: Strong federal regulation of economy

• Beliefs: Government should protect public welfare

• Support: Labor unions, social justice

Ida Tarbell

• Role: Muckraker journalist

• Famous work: History of the Standard Oil Company

• Impact: Exposed Rockefeller’s monopoly

• Result: Strengthened antitrust movement

Henry Demarest Lloyd

• Role: Early muckraker

• Work: Wealth Against Commonwealth

• Focus: Attacked monopolies (Standard Oil)

• Significance: Influenced Progressive thought

Thorstein Veblen

• Role: Economist and social critic

• Book: The Theory of the Leisure Class

• Key idea: “Conspicuous consumption”

• Impact: Criticized capitalism and consumer culture

Jacob Riis

• Role: Journalist and photographer

• Book: How the Other Half Lives

• Focus: Urban poverty and slums

• Impact: Housing and sanitation reforms

Robert M. La Follette

• Role: Progressive governor/senator from Wisconsin

• Reforms: Initiative, referendum, recall

• Program: “Wisconsin Idea”

• Impact: Model for Progressive reform

Hiram W. Johnson

• Role: Progressive governor of California

• Reforms: Direct democracy, railroad regulation

• Goal: Break power of political machines

Florence Kelley

• Role: Social reformer

• Focus: Child labor, women’s working conditions

• Organization: National Consumers League

• Impact: Labor protection laws

Frances E. Willard

• Role: Women’s reformer

• Organization: Woman’s Christian Temperance Union (WCTU)

• Causes: Temperance, women’s suffrage

• Impact: Expanded women’s role in reform

Gifford Pinchot

• Role: Head of U.S. Forest Service

• Belief: Conservation (wise use of resources)

• Allied with: Theodore Roosevelt

• Conflict: John Muir

John Muir

• Role: Naturalist and preservationist

• Founder: Sierra Club

• Belief: Protect nature from human use

• Opposed: Hetch Hetchy Dam

Herbert Croly

• Role: Political writer

• Book: The Promise of American Life

• Belief: Strong federal government needed for reform

• Influence: Inspired New Nationalism