The Progressive Movement (1900–1920)

Flashcards covering the domestic politics, key figures, cultural shifts, and racial dynamics of the American Progressive Era (1900–1920).

Who was Robert "Fighting Bob" LaFollette, and what was the "Wisconsin Idea"?

Robert LaFollette was a progressive Republican governor and senator from Wisconsin who combated lumber and railroad monopolies. The "Wisconsin Idea" was his policy of consulting academic experts and professors at the University of Wisconsin in Madison to draft effective regulatory legislation.

What was Hull House, and who founded it in 1890?

Hull House was a volunteer settlement house founded in Chicago in 1890 by social worker Jane Addams to provide English lessons, education, and community services to an immigrant neighborhood primarily composed of Polish immigrants.

How did early twentieth-century progressives differ from modern progressives regarding social reform?

While modern progressives focus primarily on material uplift and wealth redistribution, early 1900s progressives emphasized both material uplift and moral uplift, actively regulating personal behavior by combating prostitution, gambling, and alcohol abuse.

What was the Social Gospel in the Progressive Era?

The Social Gospel was a Protestant religious movement that rejected Social Darwinism, preaching that serving God required actively helping the neediest members of society and improving community welfare.

Which four constitutional amendments were ratified during the Progressive Era?

The Sixteenth Amendment (federal income tax, 1913), the Seventeenth Amendment (direct popular election of senators, 1913), the Eighteenth Amendment (prohibition of alcohol), and the Nineteenth Amendment (women's suffrage, 1920).

What were the "Three Cs" that defined Teddy Roosevelt's Square Deal?

The three components were control of corporations (preventing business fraud), consumer protection (ensuring safe food and products), and conservation of natural resources.

How did President Teddy Roosevelt handle the 1902 anthracite coal strike in Eastern Pennsylvania?

Instead of sending troops to break the strike on behalf of mine owners, Roosevelt mediated negotiations between labor and capital, bargaining the workers' wage increase request down from $25\%$ to $10\%$ while allowing them to keep their jobs.

Who was "Big Bill" Haywood, and what was significant about his union?

Haywood was the leader of the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW), the first explicitly communist union in the United States, which advocated for worker control of industry and led militant strikes in Western mining and lumber regions.

What was the outcome of Teddy Roosevelt's 1904 Justice Department investigation into John D. Rockefeller's Standard Oil?

The investigation concluded under President William Howard Taft in 1911 when the courts ruled that Standard Oil was an abusive monopoly and broke it up into five separate regional companies.

What was "embalmed milk" during the early 1900s?

Milk preserved without refrigeration by adding formaldehyde, a sweet-tasting embalming fluid that masked sourness but caused fatal chemical poisoning in dozens of children.

What impact did Upton Sinclair's 1906 novel The Jungle have on federal regulation?

Although Sinclair intended to promote socialist revolution, public disgust over descriptions of unsanitary Chicago meatpacking plants led Congress and Teddy Roosevelt to pass the Meat Inspection Act and the Pure Food and Drug Act in 1906.

What real event inspired the creation of the "teddy bear"?

During a Northern Mississippi hunting trip, Roosevelt refused to shoot an adult, eight-foot bear that had been clubbed unconscious and tied to a tree by his guide; Roosevelt then fabricated a story claiming he had spared a cute cub, inspiring a Brooklyn tailor to market stuffed "teddy bears."

What was the "New Nationalism" platform proposed by Teddy Roosevelt during his 1912 campaign?

A left-leaning agenda calling for federal income and inheritance taxes, a national minimum wage, government-run health insurance, and workers' compensation.

Who were the four candidates in the 1912 presidential election, and what was the outcome?

William Howard Taft (Republican), Teddy Roosevelt (Progressive / Bull Moose Party), Eugene V. Debs (Socialist), and Woodrow Wilson (Democrat). Wilson won the presidency with $44\%$ of the popular vote due to the Republican split.

What major financial and business regulatory bodies were created under President Woodrow Wilson?

The Federal Reserve Act of 1913 created the nation's first central bank since 1836, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) was established to regulate unfair business practices, and the Clayton Antitrust Act was enacted to protect labor unions.

What protest tactics were used by Alice Paul and the "Silent Sentinels" in 1917?

They picketed outside the White House gates, staged hunger strikes when imprisoned, and endured forced nasal feedings of eggs and milk until President Wilson ordered their release.

How did modern "dating" begin around 1910 in New York City?

Young working women with independent incomes began asking men out to commercial venues like dance halls and paying for the outings, a practice police initially mistook for prostitution, leading to the arrest of about 600 women for dating.

What was the cultural and social impact of the 1915 film The Birth of a Nation?

Directed as the first three-hour box office blockbuster, it glorified the Reconstruction-era Ku Klux Klan and directly inspired the 1915 refounding of the KKK in Georgia along with its tradition of cross burning.

How did heavyweight boxing champion Jack Johnson lead to the creation of the FBI?

Johnson's victories over white fighters and his open relationships with white women provoked Congress to pass the Mann Act (White Slave Traffic Act) in 1910, necessitating the creation of the Bureau of Investigation (later the FBI) to enforce interstate morals laws.

What was the focus of the 1910 publication The Fundamentals, and who was Billy Sunday?

The Fundamentals was a multi-volume work asserting the literal truth of the Bible and a young earth against Darwinian science; Billy Sunday was a former Major League Baseball player who became a theatrical, athletic evangelical preacher who opposed progressivism while endorsing prohibition.