The Progressive Era context Flashcards
(8 cards)
What was it characterised by
Multiple social and political reform efforts
Sought to address the issues they associated with rapid industrialism, urbanisation, immigration and political corruption
Targeted monopolies
Regulated through trustbusting (government activities seeking to dissolve corporate trusts and monopolies) and antitrust laws with the goal of promoting fair competition
Muckracking
Prominent coverage of corruption in political, local governments and big businesses by journalists
E.g McClare’s took on corporate monopolies and political machine while raising public awareness of chronic urban poverty, unsafe working condition and chid labour
Suffrage movement
Gained more popularity
The National American Woman Suffrage Association
Civil Rights
- Across the South, Black communities developed their own Progressive reform projects
- Some progressives wanted to enforce segregation believing that it allowed each group to achieve its own potential
- They thought the solution lied in Jim Crow Laws
The Social Hygiene Movement
- Brought together different groups that were concerned with venereal disease, prosititution, society’s moral standards and family life
- Targeted prostitution and aimed to dominate it by criminalising it and enforcing greater policies
- Achieved considerable success in promoting public health and morality - failed to address the underlying causes of these issues
- Poverty, economic inequality and gender inequality
- Strict moral standard, often marginalised groups such as immigrants and African Americans
Literary context
- Rise is realism
- Depicting the struggles of everyday life for working class individuals admist rapid urban growth
- Political theatre emerged as a medium, utilising performance art to engangge audiences with pressing social and political issues, often challenging the status quo
Novels
- “Three Lives” - Gertrude Stein
- “Jungle” - Upton Sinclair
