• 1906: Upton Sinclair, a writer and journalist, sickened the American public with his publishing The Jungle.

• A gruesome novel based on his investigations of the meat-packing industry.

• Sinclair and others like him became leading figures in an era of reform movements that spread throughout American society at the turn of the twentieth century.

• Many of these new reform movements were an outgrowth of earlier reform groups, such as Populists

• Many of the new reform movements arose in the cities of the Northeast, Midwest, and West Coast.

• The new reformers were reacting to the effects of the era’s rapid industrialization, immigration, and urbanization.

• Industrialization had brought prosperity but at a cost to some members of society.

• Working and living conditions for the poor were deplorable.

• Slums and congestion plagued many urban areas.

• The government tried to expand public services, but political corruption often kept these services inadequate.

• Historians refer to the period from 1890 to 1920 as the Progressive Era.

• Progressivism was not a single unified movement.

• Progressives’ goals fell into four categories: social, moral, economic, and political.

• Progressives included Republicans, Democrats, and members of other political parties.

• From the 1880s into the new century, lively debates emerged about how to reform society.

• The ideas of journalists and other writers had enormous influence on public opinion.

• 1879: journalist Henry George wrote Progress and Poverty, an effort to explain why poverty continued to plague such an advanced civilization.

• George’s ideas had a powerful effect.

• “Single tax” clubs sprang up everywhere.

• 1888: newspaper editor Edward Bellamy published a novel Looking Backward.

• His novel was about forming the perfect utopian society.

• It became a national bestseller.

• More than 150 “Nationalist” clubs formed to promote his ideas.

• Journalists played a key role in alerting the public to wrongdoing in politics and business.

• Theodore Roosevelt called such writers muckrakers.

• Despite some author’s exaggerations, the muckrakers included many respected writers who identified serious abuses.

• Journalist Lincoln Stevens exposed political corruption in St. Louis and other cities.

• Investigative journalist, Ida Tarbell revealed the abuses committed by the standard oil trust.

• Americans read muckrakers’ novels and newspaper accounts with enthusiasm.

• Many Americans were inspired to take action by joining reform groups.

• The union movement grew in the 1890s, but slowly.

• Employers discouraged union membership, preferring to deal with individual workers.

• If unions succeeded in forming, business leaders would often have courts issue injunctions.

• The Progressive Era saw a rise in the popularity of socialism.

• Socialism: an economic and political philosophy favoring public or govt. control.

• Many American Socialists of this era wanted to end the capitalist system, distribute wealth more equally, and have govt. ownership of American industries.

• 1901: the Socialist Party of America formed.• 1912: the party had won more than 1,000 city

govt. officers.

• Women played a pivotal role in the reform movements of the Progressive Era.

• Influential women’s organizations formed around nearly every major reform issue.

• One leading women’s group was the National Consumer’s League. (NCL) organized in 1899.

• Because so many urban women and children worked in factories, women’s organizations took a special interest in workplace reforms.

• A leader in the work for labor reform.• Joined Jane Addams’ Hull House in Chicago in

1891.

• 1893: Through her efforts, Illinois passed a law prohibiting child labor, limiting working hours for women, and regulating sweatshop conditions.

• Served as secretary of the NCL and spearheaded their national movement to outlaw child labor and protect workers, esp. women.

• An Irish immigrant who lost both her husband and four children to the yellow fever epidemic in Tennessee in 1867.

• 1871: she lost everything in the Great Chicago Fire.

• Appealed to the Knights of Labor for assistance, and became interested in labor reform.

• Became a national speaker on behalf of both unions and child labor.

• 1905: helped found the International Workers of the World. (IWW)

• Progressives sought increased govt. involvement in people’s lives: in housing, health care, and even in the content of the movies.

• This aspect of progressivism provoked resistance, often among the very people Progressives were trying to help.