Transcript 11.2.9 - Progressivism

PROGRESSIVISM
Who were the Progressives?
Some Standard
Interpretations
•
Progressives were responding to
specific problems created by others.
• Progressives were altruistic.
• Progressivism gave women new
opportunities.
• Progressivism was a white, urban,
middle-class phenomenon.
Some Central Questions
• What were the origins of the Progressive
Movement?
• What role did women play in the movement?
• To what extent did workers, immigrants,
African Americans, and rural Progressives
shape and participate in the movement?
p. 306-307
• “At the dawn of the new century, middleclass reformers addressed many of the
problems that had contributed to the
social upheavals of the
1890s…Together, these reform
efforts…aimed to restore economic
opportunities and correct injustices in
American life.”
p. 307
• “Other reformers felt that morality, not
the workplace, held the key to improving
the lives of poor people. These
reformers wanted immigrants and poor
city dwellers to uplift themselves by
improving their personal behavior.”
p. 308
• “The WCTU reform activities, like those
of the settlement house movement,
provided women with expanded public
roles, which they used to justify giving
women voting rights.”
p. 309
• “Government reform--including efforts to
give Americans more of a voice in
electing their legislators and creating
laws--drew increased numbers of
women into public life. It also focused
renewed attention on the issue of
woman suffrage.”
p. 308
• “Many progressive leaders put their faith
in experts and scientific principles to
make society and the workplace more
efficient.”
p. 325
• “..the apparent Progressive indifference
to racial injustice.”
• “The NAACP…aimed for nothing less
than full equality among the races. That
goal, however, found little support in the
Progressive Movement, which focused
on the needs of middle-class whites.”
The Presidents
• Roosevelt condemned…
• Taft pursued…
• Wilson pushed hard…
Some Central Questions
• What were the origins of the Progressive
Movement?
• What role did women play in the movement?
• To what extent did workers, immigrants,
African Americans, and rural Progressives
shape and participate in the movement?
Richard Hofstadter and The
Age of Reform
•
•
•
•
status revolution
professionalization
alienation
individualism and
nativism
• conservative!
Robert Wiebe and The Search
for Order
• decline of
“community;” rise of
“society”
• new middle class
• rationalization,
bureaucratization
• idealistic-->realistic
• minimizes conflict
Critiques
• No gender!
• No race!
• Little complication of class--both
assume common class interests.
• One group’s progressivism=another’s
repression.
• “In Search of Progressivism” by Daniel
T. Rodgers
Women Reformers
• Women complicate both
theses.
• Rhetoric of difference
• Traditional roles and
interests put in service of
new roles and goals
• Women respond to AND
drive reforms.
But not all women are white…
• Uplifting the race
• Claiming race,
claiming gender,
claiming class--shifting
identities
• Implications for
DuBois/Washington
debate?
Who Were the Progressives?
• Why aren’t workers’ movements
generally considered Progressive?
• Why not immigrant associations or
urban machines?
• Were there Progressives in rural areas?
• Why DO we study African-American
Progressives?
• Who defines the problem? On whose
solutions do we focus?