Rise of Progressivism the Battle for National Reform

¶ … targets of the "muckrakers" of the late 19th and early 20th centuries? How did the concept of "social justice" fit into these reform movements?

Muckrakers were progressive journalists and authors who targeted corrupt capitalists, like the meat manufactures of Upton Sinclair's The Jungle and the railroad owners of Sinclair's novel The Octopus. Also, cartoonists such as Thomas Nash targeted corrupt machine politicians, such as Tammany Hall's Boss Tweed, and photographer Jacob Riis took photographs of impoverished immigrants in urban tenements. Justice for the ordinary person against the machine, as both a laborer and an electoral voice was the conceptual impetus behind both of these branches of the muckraking movement's authors and graphic artists.

How did the role of women begin to change during this time period? What impetus helped to encourage this change? Why do you think it took so long for women's suffrage to be realized?

It was argued that suffrage would enhance the likelihood of the successful enactment of other Progressive reform causes such as temperance by empowering women with a political voice. The New Woman movement was sparked by technological innovations in housekeeping, the fall in the birth rate, and also fear of nonwhite immigrant males taking control over the workforce. But the disempowerment of woman was highly culturally entrenched within the national consciousness, despite such positive influences. Also, women's rights were frequently diluted by women's involvement in other political causes, from temperance, to African-American voting rights, and charitable organizations such as Hull House and the Salvation Army.

What is your opinion of the Temperance Crusade? After initial success it later floundered and eventually died out. Why do you think this happened?

The Temperance Crusade drew important attention to the alcoholic despair unchecked capitalism had driven many American workers to adopt as a coping mechanism. However, because of its anti-immigrant emphasis, whereby Irish and Italian individuals whose cultures used wine as a social bonding tool as well as a drug, the movement also had an excessively xenophobic and Protestant slant. The movement died out primarily because it failed to realize the role alcohol played in all of American social life, the rise of illegal influences profiting from the sale and transport of bootlegged alcohol, and the movement's failure to treat the causes rather than the symptoms of capitalism.

Describe the major characteristics of Progressivism. In what ways was the Reform Movement not progressive?

Progressivism was characterized by an optimistic vision of American society as a world constantly capable of continuous improvement, the conviction that direct, purposeful human intervention in social and economic affairs was needed to order and improve society and humans had to play an important role in improving and stabilizing society, and a belief that growth and progress should not occur recklessly as capitalism had allowed these forces to do so in the late 19th century. The Reform Movement's anti-immigration stress, on keeping America for Americans, however, ran against such an idealistic perspective of the Progressive spirit.

In what ways was Teddy Roosevelt both a Progressive reformer and strongly conservative at the same time?

Teddy Roosevelt status as a Progressive reformer is clear in his conservationist status regarding American wildlife and his belief in the goodness and power of American democracy and the American common man. However, he was also staunchly imperialistic in his foreign policy aims and intolerant of American cultural diversity and opposition to his views by the electorate and by members of Congress.

What were the personality traits of Teddy Roosevelt that made him so popular? What was his conception of the presidency? Why was he so well suited to be a "foreign policy" president?

Roosevelt's extroversion, his enthusiasm for the outdoors and America, his continual stress upon self-improvement (as he began his life as a sickly infant to become a strapping president, through sheer force of will) all made him a popular President. He was a master of the evolving media, and his conception of the American presidency was as a bully pulpit of advocacy. He defined a new role for America in the world, creating an expansionist form of foreign policy, a Manifest Destiny not confined to American territories.

What major progressive reforms did the government between 1912 and 1915 enact? Which of these reforms, if any, have had a lasting effect on the United States?