American Progressive Era Flashcards
A way for ordinary people to propose state laws. Initiatives were part of progressive reform measures.
Initiative (in the political sense, not the general meaning of the word):
Ida B. Wells, Booker T. Washington, W. E. B. DuBois
African-Americans who fought for racial justice during the Progressive era
A Progressive reform of 1914, which prohibited unfair business practices like price-fixing (offering different prices to different consumers)
Clayton Antitrust Act
A law to ensure clean food and medicine, inspired by muckracking literature like Upton Sinclair’s novel ‘The Jungle.’
The Pure Food and Drug Act of 1906
A major goal of the Progressive movement in the early 20th century.
By 1914, most states had set minimum ages for employment and prohibited children from doing dangerous jobs.
Child labor laws
A new government agency set up by Theodore Roosevelt in 1903 to regulate interstate trade in response to demands by progressive reformers. It was part of Roosevelt’s Square Deal.
Department of Commerce and Labor
Allowed voters to directly elect their state senators, in an effort to reduce corruption.
17th Amendment to the US Constitution
Child labor laws; more power to labor unions; restrictions on big corporations; health and safety standards in the workplace.
Ways Theodore Roosevelt tried to improve working conditions for Americans:
A muckracking book of the Progressive Era that revealed disgusting and unsanitary conditions in meatpacking plants in Chicago.
The Jungle
Set up new government agencies like the National Conservation Commission; set aside public land for national forests and parks; gathered experts to discuss conservation efforts.
Ways that president Theodore Roosevelt worked to conserve America’s national resources:
A group of reformers who wanted to address the social, economic, and political problems of late 19th and early 20th-century America through increased government involvement.
Progressive reformers
Restricted workdays for women; health and safety standards for the workplace; the growth of labor unions; compensation for workers injured on the job; child labor laws.
Workplace improvements that resulted from the Progressive movement in the early 1900s:
1915 movie glorifying the Ku Klux Klan; it inspired a wave of new Klan members.
The Birth of a Nation
Ida B. Tarbell, Upton Sinclair, Lincoln Steffans, David Graham Phillip
Influential muckrackers from the Progressive era
A Socialist who ran for president in 1912 on a platform of public ownership of railways, abolishing tariffs, labor reforms, and insurance for workers against accidents and death.
Eugene Debs
