The progressive Era

The progressive Era

1. Progressive Era reformers applied a systematic approach to problems facing Americans in the workplace and at home. Progressives addressed workplace efficiency and safety standards, child labor, workmen's compensation, minimum wages, and working hours for women.

   • The progressives, as they called themselves, worked to make American society a better and safer place in which to live. They tried to make big business more responsible through regulations of various kinds. They worked to clean up corrupt city governments, to improve working conditions in factories, and to better living conditions for those who lived in slum areas, a large number of whom were recent immigrants from Southern and Eastern Europe. Many progressives were also concerned with the environment and conservation of resources.
     • American industrialization, the expansion of railroads into the West, and the rise of large corporations led to the widespread destruction of areas of the Plains, as well as increased pollution of land and water.
       • The mission of the National Wildlife Refuge System is to administer a national network of lands and waters for the conservation, management and, where appropriate, restoration of the fish, wildlife and plant resources and their habitats within the United States for the benefit of present and future generations of Americans.
         • John Muir also known as "John of the Mountains" and "Father of the National Parks", was an influential Scottish-American naturalist, author, environmental philosopher, glaciologist, and early advocate for the preservation of wilderness in the United States of America.
         • Gifford Pinchot was an American forester and politician. He served as the 4th Chief of the U.S. Division of Forestry, as the 1st head of the United States Forest Service, and as the 28th Governor of Pennsylvania.
     • The poor housing, sanitation and health care, as well as the extensive exploitation of child labor in both factories and at home, became prevalent in most immigrant communities also became a focus for reformers.Feb 18, 2015
       • Their policies were undergirded by social Darwinism and eugenics and excluded groups deemed inferior — including women, Southern- and Eastern-European immigrants, Catholics, Jews, and blacks.
         • Founded in 1909, the NAACP is the nation's oldest civil rights organization. Throughout the 1920s and 1930s, the association led the black civil rights struggle in fighting injustices such as the denial of voting rights, racial violence, discrimination in employment, and segregated public facilities.
           • Booker Taliaferro Washington was an American educator, author, orator, and adviser to multiple presidents of the United States. Between 1890 and 1915, Washington was the dominant leader in the African American community and of the contemporary black elite.
         • Hull House was a progressive social settlement aimed at reducing poverty by providing social services and education to working class immigrants and laborers
           • Jane Addams was an American settlement activist, reformer, social worker, sociologist, public administrator and author. She was a notable figure in the history of social work and women's suffrage in the United States and an advocate for world peace.
     • Tuskegee Institute was founded by Booker T. Washington in 1881 under a charter from the Alabama legislature for the purpose of training teachers in Alabama. Tuskegee's program provided students with both academic and vocational training.

2. Women became leaders in a range of social and political movements from 1890 through 1920. Progressive reformers wanted to end political corruption, improve the lives of individuals, and increase government intervention to protect citizens. The suffrage movement was part of this wave of Progressive Era reforms.

   • The National American Woman Suffrage Association (NAWSA) was an organization formed on February 18, 1890, to advocate in favor of women's suffrage in the United States. It played a pivotal role in the passing of the Nineteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution, which in 1920 guaranteed women's right to vote.
     • The Nineteenth (19th) Amendment to the United States Constitution granted women the right to vote, prohibiting any United States citizen to be denied the right to vote based on sex. It was ratified on August 18, 1920 after a long struggle known as the women's suffrage movement.
     • Alice Stokes Paul was an American suffragist, feminist, and women's rights activist, and one of the main leaders and strategists of the campaign for the Nineteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, which prohibits sex discrimination in the right to vote.

3. President Theodore Roosevelt was a leader of the Progressive movement, and he championed his "Square Deal" domestic policies, promising the average citizen fairness, breaking of trusts, regulation of railroads, and pure food and drugs.

   • The Pure Food and Drug Act of 1906 was the first of a series of significant consumer protection laws which was enacted by Congress in the 20th century and led to the creation of the Food and Drug Administration.
     • The Federal Meat Inspection Act of 1906 is an American law that makes it a crime to adulterate or misbrand meat and meat products being sold as food, and ensures that meat and meat products are slaughtered and processed under strictly regulated sanitary conditions.

4. The Sherman Antitrust Act of 1890 is a United States antitrust law that regulates competition among enterprises, which was passed by Congress under the presidency of Benjamin Harrison. It is named for Sen. John Sherman, its principal author.

   • The Clayton Antitrust Act of 1914, was a part of United States antitrust law with the goal of adding further substance to the U.S. antitrust law regime; the Clayton Act sought to prevent anticompetitive practices in their incipiency.

5. Upton Beall Sinclair Jr. was an American writer who wrote nearly 100 books and other works in several genres. Sinclair's work was well known and popular in the first half of the 20th century, and he won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in 1943.

6. Jacob August Riis was a Danish-American social reformer, "muckraking" journalist and social documentary photographer. He contributed significantly to the cause of urban reform in America at the turn of the twentieth century.

7. On December 23, 1913, President Woodrow Wilson signed the Federal Reserve Act into law. ... The Federal Reserve Act still provides the framework for regulating the nation's banks, credit, and money supply even today.

8. William Howard Taft was the 27th president of the United States and the tenth chief justice of the United States, the only person to have held both offices.