The Progressive Movement

Pg. 6 - Roots of the Progressive Movement Progressive Movement

: • a collection of many movements • 1890-1920 • Americans tried to improve many of America’s social problems. – urban and middle class citizens – felt that the government should do more to help fix people’s problems.

Muckrakers

•

Muckraker

: a journalist that investigated social conditions and exposed government corruption – Muckraker newspaper articles often brought attention to social problems and put pressure on government officials to make reforms

Magazines

• magazines became popular at this time and some, like McClure’s , often included the articles by muckrakers • some popular articles became a series of articles and eventually were turned into books…

Authors

• • • •

Ida Tarbell’s

History of the Standard Oil Company

exposed how John D. Rockefeller amassed his wealth

Upton Sinclair’s

packing industry

The Jungle

exposed the unsanitary conditions in the nation’s meat

Jacob Riis

wrote

How the Other Half Lives

, revealing the terrible living conditions of the urban poor

Lincoln Steffens

wrote

The Shame of the Cities

, telling about political corruption in cities

Populist Connection

• many of the ideas of the Progressive Movement were born in the old Populist Movement • both were “

grass roots

” (from the people) organizations • each movement optimistically believed that they could cause great changes to society through their actions