Lecture 9 - Progressive Reform

Main questions

  • What is the best way to expand American power?
  • What is progress?
  • What are the continuities and changes between 19th-20th century Progressivism and present-day Progressivism?

Key concepts and terms

  • Two sides to progressive movement: purity, propriety, morality vs. rationality, efficiency, science (e.g. scientific solutions to social problems)
    • Social, scientific, industrial progress
  • Separate spheres ideology
  • Muckraking and "Civic Housekeeping"
  • Women’s Christian Temperance Union (prohibition and 18th Amendment)
  • Vices: alcohol, dance halls, prostitution as "white slavery" (regulation of male behavior by women)
  • Mann Act ("White Slave Traffic Act")
  • Women’s suffrage and cult of domesticity
  • Settlement houses
  • Fordism
  • "Rise of mass culture" and advertising

Key individuals

  • Muckrakers: Ida Tarbell (investigative journalism) and Upton Sinclair (Buy at Amazon The Jungle. Dover Publications, 2001. ISBN: 9780486419237.)
  • Margaret Sanger and contraception