The Progressive Era

• In 1908, Jack London's dystopian novel, The Iron Heel, depicted a corporate oligarchy ruling the United States, highlighting rapid industrial changes causing significant shifts in American society.

The Gilded Age Issues

• The Gilded Age presented Americans with unprecedented fortunes and poverty, imperialism controversies, urban squalor, labor strife, evolving social norms, contaminated food production, immigration influx, environmental damage, and political radicalism.

Emergence of the Progressive Era

• Middle-class Americans began advocating for reforms to address the Gilded Age's issues, leading to the Progressive Era, characterized by diverse progressive movements.
• Reformers aimed to purify politics, secure civil rights for Black Americans, empower women, and improve working conditions.

Mobilizing for Reform

• The 1911 Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire, where 146 workers died due to locked doors and inadequate safety measures, highlighted the human cost of industrial conditions.
• Owners Max Blanck and Isaac Harris were acquitted on manslaughter charges, reflecting a trend of limited accountability for business owners in worker deaths.
• Muckrakers, including journalists like Jacob Riis and Upton Sinclair, played a pivotal role in raising awareness and prompting demands for reform.
• Jacob Riis's How the Other Half Lives (1890) exposed the harsh realities of urban poverty.
• Upton Sinclair's The Jungle (1906) revealed the unsanitary conditions of industrialized food production, leading to the Meat Inspection Act and Pure Food and Drug Act.
• Edward Bellamy's Looking Backward (1888) was a popular utopian novel that envisioned a radically transformed society.

Social Gospel Movement

• Charles Sheldon's In His Steps: What Would Jesus Do? (1896) and the social gospel movement urged Christians to address societal problems and advocate for social justice.
• Walter Rauschenbusch, a prominent social gospel advocate, emphasized the need to transform social, political, and economic structures.
• Social gospel proposals often overlooked the plight of women and minorities.

Women's Activism

• Women's clubs, such as the General Federation of Women's Clubs and the National Association of Colored Women, played a vital role in campaigns for suffrage and women's rights.
• Black women organized to uplift Black communities and secure equal rights.
• Carrie A. Nation gained attention for destroying saloons.
• Frances Willard transformed the Woman's Christian Temperance Union (WCTU) into a national political organization advocating for various reforms, including temperance and women's rights.

Jane Addams and Hull House

• Jane Addams founded Hull House in Chicago in 1889 with Ellen Gates Starr, providing services and advocating for social reform in urban communities.
• Hull House workers exposed sweatshop conditions and advocated for workers' rights.
• Addams opposed class warfare and promoted cooperation between different social classes.
• She later became a prominent pacifist and received the Nobel Peace Prize in 1931.

Women's Suffrage

• The women's suffrage movement gained momentum, particularly in the West.
• The Women's Trade Union League (WTUL) and the National American Woman Suffrage Association campaigned for women's voting rights.
• The National Woman's Party, led by Alice Paul, employed militant tactics, including picketing the White House.
• The Nineteenth Amendment, granting women's suffrage, was ratified in 1920.

Targeting the Trusts

• Trusts, or monopolies, gained prominence in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, leading to concerns about wealth inequality and eroded democracy.
• Andrew Carnegie's Carnegie Steel and John D. Rockefeller's Standard Oil Company exemplified vertical and horizontal integration strategies.
• Granger laws in the Midwest aimed to regulate railroads and other companies.
• The Interstate Commerce Act (1887) and the Sherman Anti-Trust Act (1890) were enacted to regulate interstate commerce and limit anticompetitive practices.
• The Sherman Anti-Trust Act was initially ineffective due to vague language and manipulation.
• Theodore Roosevelt, known as a "trust buster," pursued antitrust legislation and regulations.
• Roosevelt targeted the Northern Securities Company, leading to its dissolution in 1904.
• William Howard Taft, Roosevelt's successor, pursued more monopoly breakups through the courts.
• The Clayton Anti-Trust Act of 1914 enhanced the Sherman Act and established the Federal Trade Commission.

Environmentalism

• Preservation and conservation emerged as competing strategies among Progressive Era environmental reformers.
• The debate over the Hetch Hetchy Valley in California highlighted the tensions between these approaches.
• John Muir advocated for preserving pristine lands for their aesthetic and spiritual value.
• Gifford Pinchot emphasized the efficient use of resources for the benefit of the greatest number of people.
• Conservation efforts, however, often disproportionately benefited financial interests.
• Progressive Era environmentalism extended to public health, sanitation, and occupational safety.

Racial Segregation and Disenfranchisement

• The South implemented disenfranchisement measures, including poll taxes, literacy tests, and grandfather clauses, to restrict Black voting.
• The Supreme Court's Plessy v. Ferguson (1896) decision established the "separate but equal" doctrine, leading to the legal segregation of public spaces.
• Justice John Harlan dissented, arguing that the Constitution is color-blind.

Booker T. Washington vs. W. E. B. Du Bois

• Booker T. Washington and W. E. B. Du Bois represented different strategies for Black Americans during the Progressive Era.
• Washington advocated for vocational training and economic self-sufficiency through institutions such as the Tuskegee Institute.
• Du Bois urged Black Americans to demand equal rights and challenge white supremacy.
• He co-founded the Niagara Movement and the NAACP and used publicatios such as The Crisis to advocate for civil rights legislation, launch legal challenges against discrimination, and organize protests against injustice