Progressive Era Unit Plan Overview

THE PROGRESSIVE ERA/THE AGE OF REFORM (1890 - 1920)

Unit Overview
The Progressive Era was a time of rapid change. Lingering social, economic, political, and environmental problems from the Gilded Age were finally addressed by activists all across the country who organized themselves into groups and demanded change. In this unit, we will analyze the factors that influenced various Americans to participate in these Progressive reform movements. We will discuss the degree to which they were successful in making the nation a more just and equitable place. We will ask ourselves how they modernized America by shifting the balance of power between: 1) workers and employers;  2) the government and citizens; 3) men and women; 4) blacks and whites; and 5) industry and nature.

Unit Essential Question
How was the Progressive Era a response to the social, economic, political, and environmental problems of the Gilded Age?

Guiding Questions
- What motivated the Progressives to try to reform American society in the early 1900s?
- What were the most pressing (most urgent) social problems of the early 1900s and how did Progressive reformers address them?
- What were the most pressing (most urgent) economic problems of the early 1900s and how did Progressive reformers address them?
- What were the most pressing (most urgent) political problems of the early 1900s and how did Progressive reformers address them?
- What were the most pressing (most urgent) environmental problems of the early 1900s and how did Progressive reformers address them?

Assessment
At the end of this unit you will have to write an essay answering the Unit Essential Question. The best way to prepare for this essay is by taking notes every day and by answering the Big Question after each and every lesson. Attached is a graphic organizer that we will fill out together over the course of the unit. It will help you organize your thoughts and keep track of everything you’re responsible for knowing.

Unit Vocabulary and Terms

Social
Jane Addams
Settlement House
Hull House
Temperance
Prohibition
Black Market
18th Amendment
Booker T. Washington
Accommodation
W.E.B. DuBois
K.K.K.
Lynching

Political
Susan B. Anthony
Suffrage/Suffragettes
19th Amendment
Teddy Roosevelt
Square Deal

Economic
Labor Union
Sweatshop
Strike
Collective Bargaining
Trusts/Trust-Busting

Environmental
Conservation
National Parks
Muckrakers
Investigative Journalism
The Jungle
The Pure Food and Drug Act

        THE PROGRESSIVE ERA/THE AGE OF REFORM

Lesson:                   Unit Introduction

Big ?:                   What motivated the Progressives to try to reform    
                           American society in the early 1900s?

Do Now:                   If you had the opportunity to fix some of the
                           problems in the world today, which would you   
                           choose and why?


Notes:

· America changed a lot during the Gilded Age. For some people, those changes were good. For others, those changes were at times very bad.

QUESTION: Think back! What were some of the changes during the Gilded Age?

· While business owners made TONS of money, average Americans earned hardly enough to live. Those who could find jobs were overworked and underpaid, and were forced to work in very unsafe conditions.

· Life in the big city was tough. Most Americans lived in slums, ate unsafe food, took unsafe medicine, and had no one to turn to for support.

· These problem were able to persist (continue) because the federal government didn’t do anything to stop them.

· Government not only did nothing to solve problems -- it often times was the problem. Government corruption was rampant (widespread.)

· There were other problems, too. Minority races and women were heavily discriminated against.

· Natural resources were diminishing (going away), and no one was stepping up to save them.

· Over time, these problems got to be intolerable. Americans across the country started to demand change.

· People organized into groups to reform society. They were called “Progressives”.

· Progressives were activists who wanted to reform unjust (unfair) things about the government, the economy, the environment, and the way people treated each other.

QUESTION: Why do you think these people were called “Progressives”?

         THE PROGRESSIVE ERA/THE AGE OF REFORM

Lesson:                   Economic Reform: Union Organization

Big ?:                   How did the working class overcome the
                           difficulties of being treated unfairly in the
                           workplace?

Do Now:                   What do you think Nick would do if one of his
                           employees came to him to complain about all the
                           problems in the workplace?

Do Now (FOR NICK): What would you do if one of your
                            employees came to you to complain about the
                            problems at your factory?



Notes:

· Most factories during the Gilded Age were sweatshops: places where workers labored long hours under poor conditions for low wages.

· Conditions in the factories grew to be intolerable.

· Workers realized that if they organized themselves into unions, they could pressure their employers into making things better. This concept is called strength in numbers.

· Labor Union: An organization of workers who have banded together to achieve common goals.

· Unions fought for shorter workdays, higher wages, and safer working conditions.

· In order to get what they wanted, unions relied on two strategies:

Strike: When workers organize to stop working to fight for better conditions or wages at their jobs.

Collective Bargaining: A process by which union representatives try to negotiate agreements with employers issues like wages and working conditions. Can be done instead of or in addition to a strike.

· Unions often faced massive resistance from their employers. Strikes sometimes led to violence

       THE PROGRESSIVE ERA/THE AGE OF REFORM

Lesson:                   Social Reform: Women Bring Reform Through
                           Charity Work

Big ?:                   How did women use charity work to improve
                           social conditions during the Progressive Era?

Do Now:                   Do you believe you have a responsibility to help
                           others in need? Why or why not?


Notes:

· Life in the big city was hard. Because there was no government assistance, the task of making life better for people living in the cities fell on regular (non-government) people.

· Jane Addams was Progressive reformer who gave social and educational support to people living in a poor, mostly immigrant neighborhood in Chicago.

· She opened a settlement house -- a community center that provided assistance to people in need. The one she opened was called Hull House. Soon, many more like it opened in other big cities.

· Hull House had a school, a nursery, a theater, a library, a cafeteria, and other services. It opened the city’s first playground.

· Addams believed that poverty was not the result of a moral defect, but of a lack of access to opportunity.

· Addams fought to protect disadvantaged people: immigrants, women, and children.

· At Hull House, there was no discrimination on the basis of race, language, religion, or age.

        THE PROGRESSIVE ERA/THE AGE OF REFORM

Lesson:                   Social Reform: Temperance

Big ?:                   Why did women feel alcohol was such a problem
                           and what did they do to fix that problem?

Do Now:                   Should alcohol be legal? Can you think of any
                           problems associated with alcohol?

Notes:

· Progressives (change-makers) of the late 1800/early 1900s wanted to improve the quality of life for all Americans.

· Many thought alcohol consumption was a major problem in America’s urban centers.

· The males of the household would often drink heavily, spending the family’s hard-earned wages on alcohol instead of on necessary items like food and medicine.

· Domestic violence and neglect were major issues during the Gilded Age, and alcohol contributed to these problems.

· A movement emerged to ban the making and distribution of alcohol. It was led mainly by women who were motivated by religion and it was called the Temperance movement.

· The word to describe the period when alcohol was illegal is Prohibition. It started with the passage of the 18th Amendment in 1920 and ended with the passage of the 21st Amendment in 1933.

        THE PROGRESSIVE ERA/THE AGE OF REFORM

Lesson:                   Social Reform: Prohibition

Big ?:                   Did Prohibition make America a better place?

Do Now:                   BRAINSTORM! How do you think people
                           reacted when the 18th Amendment passed?  
                           (NOTE: Don’t just say “they got mad.” Tell me
                           what you think they DID.)


Notes:

· People found ways to get around the new laws. A massive underground criminal network sprung up to meet the high demand for alcohol. This was called the black market.

· Bootlegging (the illegal transportation of alcohol) was rampant (widespread). Alcohol was illegally imported from Canada and Mexico.

· Some criminals started making their own alcohol. What they made was often VERY unsafe to drink.

· Speakeasies (illegal, underground bars) popped up across the country.

· The mafia (organized criminals) made MILLIONS during Prohibition by controlling the black market.

· As gangs competed for control of the black market, violence rose.

· The government could not enforce the laws well enough to stop this criminal activity. Eventually, they just gave up and repealed Prohibition.

     THE PROGRESSIVE ERA/THE AGE OF REFORM

Lesson:                   Social Reform: Civil Rights Leaders of the Turn
                           of the Century

Big ?:                   How did civil rights leaders like Booker T.
                           Washington and W.E.B. DuBois address the
                           issues associated with racism and segregation?

Do Now:                   Do you think racism will ever go away
                           completely? What do you think it would take to
                           make people less racist?


Notes:

· Racism was a huge problem in the early 1900s. African Americans (and other racial minorities) were discriminated against when it came to jobs, education, housing, and voting.

· African Americans in the South faced violence at the hands of the Ku Klux Klan and others.

· More than 2,500 African Americans were lynched between 1885 and 1900.

· Different people had different ideas about how to solve this terrible problem.

· Two great leaders of the black community in the late 19th and early 20th century were Booker T. Washington and W.E.B. DuBois.

· Washington, a former slave, did NOT openly challenge segregation. He believed that if African Americans gained economic strength, social equality and political power would later follow. His philosophy was called accommodation.

· Washington believed that political and social equality were less important than economic equality. He argued that if blacks could get the same jobs as whites, they would prove themselves useful, and social equality would eventually be given to them. Blacks were urged to work as farmers, skilled artisans, domestic servants, and manual laborers to prove to whites that all blacks were not “liars” and “thieves.”

· He opened the Tuskagee Institute so African Americans could learn trades that would get them jobs.

· DuBois felt Washington's strategy would serve only to perpetuate (continue) white oppression. He DID openly challenge segregation and was OPPOSED to accommodation. He demanded for all black citizens 1) political power, 2) social equality, and 3) equal education.

· DuBois believed that political action and an academic education would help African Americans achieve equal rights.

· DuBois helped found the NAACP in order to achieve his goals.

QUESTION: Who do you think angered white people more: Washington or DuBois?

        THE PROGRESSIVE ERA/THE AGE OF REFORM

Lesson:                   Political Reform: Suffrage

Big ?:                   Why did women feel they should be allowed to
                           vote and how did they go about winning this
                           right?

Do Now:                   Who should be allowed to vote in this country?
                           Everyone or just some people? Why?


Notes:

· Before 1920, women were not allowed to vote.

· Starting in the late 1800s, some women started a movement to gain the right to vote (suffrage). They were called suffragettes.

· Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton were two famous suffragettes.

· They created national organizations and published writings in order to make their voices heard.

· Suffragettes used different arguments to persuade (convince) the country that they should be allowed to vote.

· Some said women were the same as men, and thus deserved equal rights.

· Others said women were different from men because they were more moral, meaning that they could do a better job running the country.

· Women won the right to vote when the 19th Amendment passed in 1920.

· Suffragettes expanded democracy.

       THE PROGRESSIVE ERA/THE AGE OF REFORM

Lesson:                   Environmental Reform: Conservation

Big ?:                   How did the government use its power to protect
                           the environment?

Do Now:                   Whose job is it to protect the environment?


Notes:

· By the turn of the century, America had already used up a lot of its natural resources.

· As the population boomed, people moved west. In settling the frontier, Americans had depleted the forests and exhausted the farmland.

· Teddy Roosevelt cared deeply about the environment. He spent a lot of his time outdoors, riding horses and hiking. He wanted to make sure Americans after him could do the same.

· He used his political power to preserve over 200 million acres of America’s land.

· He created national parks -- places that couldn’t be developed on or stripped of their resources.

· Under Roosevelt, conservation became a national issue for the first time.

QUESTION: Who do you think would be most upset by Roosevelt’s conservation efforts? Why?