Chapter 18: The Progressive Era Flashcards

Vocabulary flashcards covering key terms, figures, and political reforms of the Progressive Era based on the lecture.

Imperialism

The policy of expanding national power and taking over territory, which Teddy Roosevelt engaged the United States in.

Progressives

People of any political party, gender, religion, color, or background who pushed for reform in social issues, government, and business during the Progressive Era.

Muckrakers

Progressive journalists who exposed corruption and social problems, named after the barn tool used to shovel manure.

Jacob Riis

A photographer and muckraker who exposed the living conditions inside tenements.

Upton Sinclair

A muckraker journalist who exposed the meatpacking industry and wrote The Jungle.

Ida B. Wells

A muckraker journalist who exposed the occurrence of lynching in Tennessee and was kicked out of the state as a result.

Ida Tarbell

A muckraker journalist who wrote an exposure on Standard Oil.

Eugene Debs

A labor leader who started railroad labor unions, brought the Socialist Party to the United States, and ran for president multiple times.

Battling Bob

The reform governor of Wisconsin who worked to increase public participation in political processes and government.

Direct Primaries

Elections in which citizens vote directly to select candidates running for political office.

Seventeenth Amendment

The constitutional amendment that established the direct election of U.S. senators by the people.

Social Progressives

Reformers, predominantly women during the Progressive Era, who focused on social issues such as child labor, education, and temperance.

Temperance Movement

A reform movement initially focused on encouraging the moderation of drinking before shifting to advocate for a ban on alcohol.

Eighteenth Amendment

The constitutional amendment resulting from the temperance movement that outlawed alcohol in the United States.

Nineteenth Amendment

The constitutional amendment ratified in 1920 that granted women the right to vote across the United States.

Social Gospel Movement

A Protestant Christian reform movement in the late 19th and early 20th centuries that applied Christian ethics to social problems like poverty, inequality, and labor rights.

National Child Labor Committee

An organization formed in 1904 to promote child labor reform through investigative reports, public awareness campaigns, and legislative lobbying.

Feminism in the Progressive Era

A social and political movement advocating for women's suffrage, legal equality, economic independence, and social rights.

Muller v. Oregon

The 1908 Supreme Court case that upheld a state law limiting maximum working hours for women, establishing a precedent for state intervention in workplace safety.

Plessy v. Ferguson

The 1896 Supreme Court decision that legalized racial segregation in public facilities under the 'separate but equal' doctrine.

NAACP

A civil rights organization founded in 1909 to eliminate racial discrimination and secure equal political, educational, social, and economic rights.

Federal Trade Commission

A federal agency established in 1914 to investigate corporate practices, enforce antitrust laws, and prevent unfair business competition.

Federal Reserve Board

The governing body created in 1913 to oversee national monetary policy, regulate banking institutions, and manage the money supply.

Meat Inspection Act

A 1906 federal law prompted by Upton Sinclair's reporting that mandated sanitary standards in slaughterhouses and required federal inspections.

Pure Food and Drug Act

A 1906 law that halted the sale of contaminated or misbranded food and medicine, requiring truthful ingredient labeling.

New Nationalism vs. New Freedom

The 1912 political debate between Theodore Roosevelt's plan for federal regulation of big business and Woodrow Wilson's campaign to dissolve trusts and restore small-business competition.

Eugenics

A movement in the early 20th century advocating for selective breeding and forced sterilization to alter human genetic composition.

1902 Coal Strike

A major labor dispute in Pennsylvania where President Theodore Roosevelt intervened as a neutral arbitrator, setting a precedent for federal mediation.

Underwood Tariff

A 1913 law passed under Woodrow Wilson that significantly lowered import duties and established the first federal graduated income tax.