Progressivism Reform, 1880-1917

Question 1

An urban aid society that served members of an ethnic immigrant group, usually those from a particular province or town. The societies functioned as fraternal clubs that collected dues from members in order to pay support in case of death or disability.

Answer 1

mutual aid society

Question 2

A term for an attack on African Americans by white mobs, triggered by political conflicts, street altercations, or rumors of crime. In some cases, such “riots” were not spontaneous but planned in advance by a group of leaders seeking to enforce white supremacy.

Answer 2

race riot

Question 3

A high-density, cheap, five- or six-story housing unit designed for working-class urban populations. In the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries; became a symbol of urban immigrant poverty

Answer 3

tenement

Question 4

A type of professional stage show popular in the 1880s and 1890s that included singing, dancing, and comedy routines; it created a form of family entertainment for the urban masses that deeply influenced later forms, such as radio shows and television sitcoms.

Answer 4

vaudeville theater

Question 5

A form of American music that originated in the Deep South, especially from the black workers in the cotton fields of the Mississippi Delta.

Answer 5

blues

Question 6

A derogatory term for newspapers that specialize in sensationalistic reporting; associated with the inflammatory reporting by the Hearst and Pulitzer newspapers

Answer 6

yellow journalism

Question 7

A critical term, first applied by Theodore Roosevelt, for investigative journalists who published exposés of political scandals and industrial abuses.

Answer 7

muckrakers

Question 8

A highly organized group of insiders that directs a political party.

Answer 8

political machines

Question 9

A political reform organization that advised cities to elect small councils and hire professional city managers who would direct operations like a corporate executive.

Answer 9

National Municipal League

Question 10

A loose term for the cause of political reformers — especially those from the elite and middle classes — who worked to improve the political system, fight poverty, conserve environmental resources, and increase government involvement in the economy.

Answer 10

progressivism

Question 11

A turn-of-the-twentieth-century movement that advocated landscape beautification, playgrounds, and more and better urban parks.

Answer 11

“City Beautiful” movement

Question 12

A community welfare center that investigated the plight of the urban poor, raised funds to address urgent needs, and helped neighborhood residents advocate on their own behalf.

Answer 12

social settlement

Question 13

One of the first and most famous social settlements, founded in 1889 by Jane Addams and her companion Ellen Gates Starr in an impoverished, largely Italian immigrant neighborhood on Chicago’s West Side.

Answer 13

Hull House

Question 14

A 1906 law regulating the conditions in the food and drug industries to ensure a safe supply of food and medicine.

Answer 14

Pure Food and Drug Act

Question 15

Begun in New York, a national progressive organization that encouraged women, through their shopping decisions, to support fair wages and working conditions for industrial laborers.

Answer 15

National Consumer’s League

Question 16

A labor organization for women founded in New York in 1903 that brought elite, middle-class, and working-class women together as allies; supported union organizing efforts among garment workers.

Answer 16

Women’s Trade Union League

Question 17

A devastating fire that quickly spread through a factory building in New York City on March 25, 1911, killing 146 people. In the wake of the tragedy, fifty-six state laws were passed dealing with such issues as fire hazards, unsafe machines, and wages and working hours for women and children. The fire also provided a national impetus for industrial reform.

Answer 17

Triangle Fire

Question 18

African-American composer and pianist; achieved fame for his ragtime compositions and was dubbed the King of Ragtime; wrote 44 original ragtime pieces, one ragtime ballet, and two operas.

Answer 18

Scott Joplin

Question 19

Danish-American social reformer, “muckraking” journalist and social documentary photographer; contributed to the cause of urban reform in America at the turn of the twentieth century; “How the Other Half Lives.”

Answer 19

Jacob Riis

Question 20

an American settlement activist, reformer, social worker, sociologist, public administrator and author; was a notable figure in the history of social work and women’s suffrage in the United States and an advocate for world peace; Hull House

Answer 20

Jane Addams

Question 21

an American birth control activist, sex educator, writer, and nurse; popularized the term “birth control”, opened the first birth control clinic in the United States, and established organizations that evolved into the Planned Parenthood Federation of America.

Answer 21

Margaret Sanger

Question 22

an American writer whose involvement with socialism led to a writing assignment about the plight of workers in the meatpacking industry, eventually resulting in the best-selling novel The Jungle

Answer 22

Upton Sinclair

Question 23

one who sells something in a dishonest and aggressive way.

Answer 23

huckster