Progressive Era

1. The Progressive Era was a time when

American society was capable of improvement and continued growth and advancement.

2. Progress would only occur through human intervention to solve problems.

What was the Progressive Era

1. One main reason the Progressive Era launched was because of the

previous era called the “Gilded Age” which was where the Second Industrial Revolution took off, businesses grew and America was becoming a super power in the world.

2. Think of the “Gilded Age” as food and “America” as a human body. The human body ate the food and kept the nutrients it needed but got rid of the waste.

3. The waste was things like poverty, child labor, poor working conditions, and monopolies. All of which we learned about!

4. People saw the waste and realized they needed to clean it up.

5. People called “Muckrakers” helped America realize there was a lot of waste to clean up!

What Started Progressivism?

1. Muckrakers were journalists in the early

1900s who specialized in exposing corruption, waste and scandals.

2. Muck is another word for dirt or manure.

3. These journalists had stories posted in magazines such as TIME.

Muckrakers?!

1. People read about corruption in businesses

or people and were disgusted about what was happening. The readers felt major reform was needed.

2. Thus was born the Progressive Movement which aimed to make society a better place!

Muckraker’s Influence

1. The early 1900s was filled with inefficiency,

corruption and injustices in politics.

2. Many Progressives wanted and pushed for change.

3. There would be 4 amendments passed during this era.

4. Let’s refresh our memories

Political Reforms

1. Amendments are changes to the

Constitution. An addition to the constitution if you will.

2. The Progressive Era had 4 amendments passed that included things like women’s rights to vote.

What are Amendments?

1. Women, until the 19th Amendment,

could not vote in the United States.

2. Was this right or wrong?

3. We will learn more about this in a later lesson.

Women’s Rights

1. The Progressive Era had its

emphasis on education which was believed to be a solution to the weak societies.

2. The other emphasis was placed on science and technology to make life better.

Modernization

1. Many Progressives pushed for prohibition.

2. Prohibition was the ban on manufacturing, selling or distributing alcohol.

3. Many Progressives felt that alcohol led to the demise of a society.

4. The 18th Amendment, Prohibition, was passed in 1919.

5. This led to many people running illegal bars called “speakeasy clubs”.

6. Prohibition led to some more problems and was repealed with the 21st Amendment in 1933 thus allowing the manufacturing, sale and distribution of alcohol again.

Prohibition

1. Many Progressives were in favor of

stopping monopolies and labor/worker rights and protections.

2. We learned about monopolies in the past lesson, do you think that it was the right or wrong thing to do?

3. We also learned about child labor and the new set of labor laws put into effect.

Business Reform

1. This was a time in US history where a lot of

reforms and “cleaning” up was done.

2. The movement died down after World War I.

3. Overall – the Progressive Era did help with things like the labor laws and emphasis on education and did not help with banning alcohol as it caused more crime to emerge. It is debatable whether the Progressive Era was a good or bad thing.

Conclusion of the Progressive Era