The Progressive Era:
Reform and Reaction, 1890s-1925
CLASSES: Tue 29 Sep & Thu 1 Oct
READING & VIEWING
Start reading before Tuesday and complete by Thursday.
- 1) Required film: Plutocracy, Part I, by Scott Noble, 2015.
Please watch the film before Tuesday. Your assignment is to watch two half-hour segments at different times, not all at once. Take notes and see the homework option below.
– On 1865-1900s, from 30:25 to 1:06:00.
– On early labor movements in US, from 1:06:00 to 1:46:18 (end).
(The links lead directly to the timestamp indicated.) - 2) Minimum reading: American Yawp, First Edition, Chapter 20: “The Progressive Era”
- 3) Primary Sources: These are short and easy. All 3 are required by Thursday. Picked up via American Yawp, Chapter 20:
–> Black Progress: Speech by Booker T. Washington (1895). An eventual response by his student, W.E.B. DuBois (1903).
–> Crystal Eastman, in ‘Now We Can Begin’ (1920), asks, what comes after suffrage for women?
–> Ellen Welles Page, ‘A Flapper’s Appeal to Parents’ (1922), speaks to the elder generation who are wondering, why are these flappers like that? - 4) Advanced Alternative: Progressive Era, 1890s-1925
You may choose to skip #2 (American Yawp) and instead read my own treatment of the political-economic history of the US from the 1880s to the 1920s. We will be using this in the classes. It is longer, but it also covers a much longer period. It is harder, but the greater depth should mean that you gain a better understanding of the history if you do some work. Anyone is free to take this challenge. It’s good for you! I strongly recommend it for history majors and those of you who intend to write individual papers. Reading it carefully may need about three hours. If you do this, follow the usual strategy: Relax. Go slow, make sure you get it. Write down and look up words and terms you don’t know. Take simple and brief notes by hand, enough to remember key points. When you are done, go back and review and then see the homework options, below. And relax. I don’t want you to feel pressure. I shouldn’t say this, but due to my lateness there will be no quizzes this week.
WRITTEN HOMEWORK OPTIONS
These are not required. They are optional. Your submissions will count as extra credit toward the “homework and quizzes” part of the grade. They are useful exercises. Please do no more than ONE of these. Write by hand. You should aim to submit your short essay in class on Thu 1 Oct. I will accept later submissions until Tue 6 Oct without penalty.
- For those who read American Yawp (#2): Choose one full section. (They are numbered by roman numerals.) Re-read it and examine the images. Write your impressions. How do you see the issues raised still playing out today, if at all?
- For those who choose the alternative reading (#4): Choose two full sections. (Note that this option is different and longer than the other assignment.) Write what the two sections describe, in a shorter form, in your own handwriting. Add your own thoughts as you go. Submit the resulting short essay (two to three paragraphs) in class on Thu 1 Oct. I will accept later submissions until Tue 6 Oct. In class I will ask you which sections you chose, and we will review those (since we probably can’t review the entire text in class). This assignment is designed to prepare you for writing your own essays and presentations.
- If you prefer to write a brief essay about the film, Plutocracy: Watch both of the assigned sections. Choose one. Within that, choose two of the issues addressed. Write 2-3 paragraphs in which you summarize what the film says about these issues, then relate them, and provide your own commentary or analysis.
Notes on Plutocracy: I have assigned this film as the first thing you should do because it sets us up well for the subsequent Progressive Era. The film features narration over a combination of original visual sources from historical archives, scenes from Hollywood movies, and interviews with modern-day historians. The first assigned section (30:25 to 1:06:00) begins with a title that reads, “1865.” It shows images of the dead in the Civil War, and considers the fortunes being made during and after the war by the robber barons, who need not worry about the draft. (There may be an error early on in the claim about Carnegie paying the $300 fee to avoid the draft. I have not been able to confirm this. He was given a rank in the Union army as a contractor who provided telegraph cable.) The rest of this section covers issues of Reconstruction, African Americans and Irish immigrants, and much more. I’ll let you take your own notes.
The second section assigned, from 1:06:00 to 1:46:18 (end credits), focuses more exclusively on labor movements, starting with the Knights of Labor in the 1870s, the American Federation of Labor (AFL), the Great Railway strike of 1877, the Haymarket Affair of the 1880s, the Homestead workers’ battle with the Pinkertons, the travails of Chinese workers in the West, and the difficulties of the early industrial labor movements in the US. It concludes with the formation of the Socialist Party and the Industrial Workers of the World at the turn of the century.
– EXTRAS –
Here is some stuff we will do in class, if there is enough time. It’s all short, so you might take a look if you have time.
Assassination Slideshow: The death of President James Garfield (1881) and its consequences for early progressive reform. My challenge is to go through this in class in exactly 10 minutes as a demonstration, because it simulates 1/2 of the 20-minute presentations your groups are expected to do in class.
NEW YORK 1911 – A black-and-white reel of 9 minutes, taken on a ferry and on the street in 1911, at the dawn of the cinematic age, and at a time when New York was already the most amazing city in the world.
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WHAT IS TAYLORISM? Two minutes from a PBS documentary on the origins of Time and Motion Studies. This was part of the development of Taylorism: the science of making the motions of human workers more efficient.
We may do a Fake Quiz on American Imperialism, ca. 1898. (This won’t count: we will just do it live in class, no paper.)
Yasha Levine, ‘The Racist Origins of America’s Tech Industry’ (2020).
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OLD LECTURE: An earlier version of my Progressive Era text, delivered as a lecture several years ago. If you are reading that, you might find this useful.