Progressivism and Imperialism
Evaluate Progressive reform, women suffrage, conservation, racial politics, overseas expansion, and debates over empire.
A lesson of AP United States History, in Periods 6-7: 1865-1945, about 10 minutes.
Progressivism and American Imperialism
By the end of this lesson, you will be able to explain the goals and achievements of the Progressive movement, analyze how muckrakers and women shaped reform, and evaluate the causes and consequences of American imperialism at the turn of the 20th century.
Progressivism (1890s–1920s)
Progressivism was a broad reform movement responding to the social problems created by industrialization — poverty, corruption, child labor, unsafe food, and machine politics.
Progressives were NOT a unified ideology: they included settlement house workers, muckraking journalists, suffragists, labor reformers, and politicians who disagreed on much but shared a belief that government intervention could solve social problems.
Key Progressive ideas:
- Expert-led reform: government should use social science, statistics, and expertise to address social problems
- Direct democracy: citizens should have more direct control over government (bypassing corrupt machines and party bosses)
- Regulation: federal and state government should regulate corporations, working conditions, and food safety
- "Wisconsin Idea": Governor Robert La Follette's model — using university expertise to draft reform legislation
Muckrakers: Journalism as Reform Tool
"Muckraker" (term coined by Theodore Roosevelt): investigative journalists exposing corruption and social problems.
Ida Tarbell: History of Standard Oil Company (1904) — detailed Rockefeller's use of secret railroad rebates; contributed to Standard Oil breakup (1911)
Upton Sinclair: The Jungle (1906) — exposed unsanitary conditions in Chicago meatpacking plants; intended as a socialist critique of capitalism; readers focused on the food safety revelations
- Led directly to the Meat Inspection Act and Pure Food and Drug Act (1906)
Lincoln Steffens: The Shame of the Cities (1904) — exposed municipal political corruption
Jacob Riis: How the Other Half Lives (1890) — photographic documentary of New York tenement life; helped launch housing reform
Women and Progressivism
Women were central to the Progressive movement — often through organizations rather than formal political power (since most couldn't vote until 1920).
Settlement Houses:
- Jane Addams' (Chicago, 1889) — provided social services, education, and research in immigrant neighborhoods