Unit 4.5

Pure Food and Drug Act

Preventing the manufacture, sale, or transportation of misbranded or poisonous foods and drugs.

Direct Primary

A reform in elections that enabled all members of a political party to choose the people who would represent their party in a general election.

Recall

Gave citizens the power to remove public officials from office before their term ended by collecting enough signatures on a petition.

Initiative

Gave citizens the power to propose a new law by collecting signatures on a petition.

17th Amendment

Allowed for the direct election of U.S. Senators by the citizens of each state, instead of by state legislatures.

Social Darwinism

The belief that society should be governed by the "survival of the fittest," and that children work forces bettered the economy.

Social Gospel Movement

The movement that believes that to become a true Christian that you must better the lives of the people around you.

Muckrakers

Journalists who wrote to expose or bring light to political corruption, unsafe working conditions, and poverty.

Progressive Movement

A period of political and social reform aimed at making America a more moral, just, and orderly place for the American people.

Jacob Riis

A journalist and photographer who wrote the novel How the Other Half Lives, exposing the terrible living conditions of immigrants in New York City's tenements.

Upton Sinclair

A muckraker who wrote the novel The Jungle, which exposed the unsanitary conditions and poor treatment of workers in the meat-packing industry.

Jane Addams

A key figure in the Social Gospel Movement, responsible for the construction of settlement houses (community centers for people that live in poor areas).

Referendum

Gave citizens the power to vote whether to approve or reject a law, after getting enough signatures on a petition.

Gilded Age

A term used to describe the era in American history where rapid industrial growth and lavish wealth hid corruption and poor living conditions in the cities.