The Progressive Era

Question 1

How long did the Progressive era last?

Answer 1

It started and ended between 1900-1916

Question 2

What is Progressivism?

Answer 2

-A U.S. reform movement based on the belief that society could make progress against the abuses of the Industrial Revolution.

Question 3

What were some of the most prominent concerns from Progressives?

Answer 3

-Urban poverty and slums
-Child labour
-Dangerous working conditions and low wages
-Unsanitary factory food processing
-Immigrant ghetto conditions

Question 4

What did Progressives blame as the cause of ‘economic evils’ and why?

Answer 4

Trusts and monopolies as they controlled markets, held great influence over government, easily controlled wages, hours and working conditions in factories.

Question 5

Why were Progressives so powerful?

Answer 5

They incorporated people from all walks of life and economic status

Question 6

What are ‘muckrakers’ and name two people classified as ‘muckrakers’

Answer 6

They are reporters and novelists such as Lincoln Steffens and Upton Sinclair who would write about the problems facing the cities bringing it to the attention of the masses

Question 7

Why did Theodore Roosevelt pass the ‘Meat Inspection Act of 1906’?

Answer 7

He saw Sinclair’s reports about the substandard practises taking place in the meatpacking industry such as the inclusion of rope and rats in canned ham

Question 8

What was the Panic of 1907?

Answer 8

The New York Stock Exchange fell 50% from its peak the previous year causing panic across the US with many banks and companies going into bankruptcy

Question 9

How was a depression avoid from the Panic of 1907?

Answer 9

People like JP Morgan pledged large sums of their own money to shore up the banking system in America

Question 10

What system did the US implement to try and prevent events like the Panic of 1907?

Answer 10

Federal Reserve System

Question 11

In 1912 Congress passed an amendment to the Constitution which meant that…..

Answer 11

Senators were now going to be directly elected by the people rather than state legislature in order to prevent businesses couldn’t control elections

Question 12

When was William Taft president?

Answer 12

1909-1913

Question 13

When was Theodore Roosevelt president?

Answer 13

1901-1909

Question 14

When was Woodrow Wilson president?

Answer 14

1913-1921

Question 15

Why did Woodrow Wilson win the 1913 elections?

Answer 15

Theodore Roosevelt decided he wanted to be president again but didn’t beat William Taft for the Republican nominee causing Roosevelt to make his own party splitting the Republican alliances

Question 16

What system and act did Woodrow Wilson implement?

Answer 16

-Federal Reserve System
-Clayton Act

Question 17

What does the Clayton Act forbid?

Answer 17

Business practices that lessened competition, set unfair prices or created monopolies

Question 18

What acts did the Democrats implement to address the needs of farmers and workers?

Answer 18

-The Federal Farm Loan Act: low interest loans for farmers
-The Seamens Act: decent food and wages for sailors
-Workingmans Compensation Act: gave Federal services employees help when disabled
-Adamson Act: 8 hour work day for employees on interstate trains

Question 19

How much did the economy total output increase by between 1900-1910

Answer 19

85%

Question 20

For the first time in American history the number of Americans living in cities outnumbered those living in rural areas.
1. How many people lived in New York by 1910?
2. How much of the nation’s workers were employed in factories with more than 250 workers?
3. By 1890 how many Americans worked for wages?

Answer 20

-4.7 million
-Half
-2/3

Question 21

Define mass consumption

Answer 21

The purchase of goods beyond the minimal need of food and shelter, by the majority of the population

Question 22

Why did immigrants go to America during this time?

Answer 22

Some came to escape religious persecution but the majority were in search of political freedom and prosperity they couldn’t find in Europe

Question 23

What treatment did Immigrants continue to experience in the workplace?

Answer 23

-Long hours for low pay
-Dangerous conditions

Question 24

By 1900 women gained the rights to what?

Answer 24

-Own property
-Control their earnings
-Have custody of their children after divorce

Question 25

Campaigns from 1900 were? And what was their aim?

Answer 25

-They were theatrical and public including marches, parades, advertising campaigns, mass marketing of flags and badges and large scale entertainment
-The aim was to see a constitutional amendment passed giving women the right to vote

Question 26

There was a form of feminism that emurged during the Progressive era of which demanded what?

Answer 26

-Personal freedom for women in their sexual behaviour
-Right to reproductive choice
-Right to control the number of children they want

Question 27

What did the 1873 Comstock Act make illegal?

Answer 27

Distribution of information about birth control or sending birth control devices through the American postal system

Question 28

What was Former nurse Margaret Sanger’s argument about birth control, what did her beliefs alline with and when, where and why was she imprisoned?

Answer 28

-That if a women could not control her fertility, she would never be free
-She was more aligned with socialists and the International Workers of the World than with the more mainstream Progressives
-She was imprisoned in 1916 under the Comstock Act when she opened the first birth control clinic in Brooklyn, New York

Question 29

Who and when was Theodore Roosevelt appointed as president after their assassination?

Answer 29

President William McKinley in 1901

Question 30

When did Theodore Roosevelt leave presidency and when and why did he return?

Answer 30

He left in 1909 but returned in 1912 because he was disappointed that his chosen successor William Taft hadn’t pursued the Progressive agenda strongly enough.

Question 31

What did Theodore Roosevelt when he attempted to returned to presidency in 1912?

Answer 31

He formed the Progressive Party and stood for president but was defeated by Democratic Woodrow Wilson

Question 32

Define socialism

Answer 32

A political ideology based on the belief that business, industry, services and the monetary system should be owned and controlled by the community as a whole through government

Question 33

Which group did Progressives desire to protect not extend to?

Answer 33

African Americans

Question 34

What law did the South of former slave states pass and what did it to African Americans?

Answer 34

The Black Codes which placed freemen or freed slaves under white control

Question 35

The Republican North introduced the Reconstruction Act 1867 in the South in order to do what? And when did it officially end?

Answer 35

-To rebuild the South into a free labour economy, enfranchising African Americans, establishing schools, medical care and negotiating labour contracts
-1877

Question 36

What was the Ku Klux Klan?

Answer 36

A secret terrorist organisation in the US that targeted African Americans, Jews and Catholics

Question 37

Define a white supremacist

Answer 37

A person who believes that white people are superior to other races, especially black races, and that they should have control over black races

Question 38

By the 1890s a series of laws called the Jim Crow laws made what illegal?

Answer 38

Restricted the freedom of African Americans, segregating schools, hospitals, universities, hotels and workplaces, and made sexual relations between white and black people illegal

Question 39

What qualifications did the South introduce in the beginning of the 1890s to prevent African Americans from voting?

Answer 39

Literary tests and property qualifications