Part I – The Gilded Age and Progressive Era (1876-1929)
Unit I – The Gilded Age and Progressive Era
In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, the nation was turned upside-down. The once dominant South had been
devastated by war and its four million slaves freed. In the West, a land of tribal hunters was slowly conquered and
transformed into a land that produced commodities for the world market. In the North, a world of farmers and
villagers was becoming oriented to rapidly growing and industrializing cities, joined by the greatest wave of immigrants
in U.S. history. Historians refer to this period as the Gilded Age (borrowing a phrase from Mark Twain) and the
Progressive Era—“Gilded” because of the emergence of a new, unprecedented, wealthy economic elite, and
“Progressive” because of the spirit of reform that energized farmers, workers, women, and a new middle class of
professionals as they grappled with the problems wrought by these rapid changes. This unit examines the major events
of the Gilded Age and Progressive Era, including industrialization and urbanization, the refashioning of social
relationships and social customs, and the reconstruction of the political system, and the emergence of the United States
as a world power.
Essential Questions
How did middle-class Americans reform society and to what extend did they find success?
What strategies did the middle class and government elites use to effect change in society?
Topics of Study
I. Rise of Industrial Capitalism
The Gilded Age
The New Immigrants
Railroads and the Industrial Age
Tycoons of Industry
Urban Opportunities and Problems
Problems of the Industrial Era
II. The Progressive Era Begins
Progressivism and its Goals
Controlling Big Business
A Middle Class Reform Movement
Local-to-State-to-Federal Intervention
Transforming Americans
The Shield of Segregation
Ending Class Conflict
III. The Role of the Federal Government
T.R and the Square Deal
Taft and the Old Guard
The Election of 1912
Wilson and the New Freedom
Part I – The Gilded Age and Progressive Era (1876-1929)
Unit I – The Gilded Age and Progressive Era
Below is a tentatively complete list of terms to understand in your study:
People and Groups
Presidents
Theodore Roosevelt (1901-1909)
William Howard Taft (1909-1913)
Woodrow Wilson (1913-1921)
Political Reformers
Robert M. La Follette vs. the “Machines”
Eugene V. Debs and the IWW
Samuel Gompers and the AFL
Middle Class Reformers and Women’s’ Rights
Jane Addams (and Hull House)
Florence Kelley
Robber Barons
John D. Rockefeller, Cornelius Vanderbilt,
and Andrew Carnegie
Muckrakers
Ida Tarbell, Jacob Riis, Lincoln Steffens,
and Upton Sinclair
Environmental Reform and Conservationism
John Muir
Gifford Pinchot
Civil Rights Reformers
Booker T. Washington
W.E.B. DuBois
Ida B. Wells
Marcus Garvey
Progressive Era Groups and Parties
WCTU, NAWSA, NACW, NAACP
Bull Moose Party
Capital (Management) v. Labor (Unions)
Events
Anthracite Coal Strike of 1902
Northern Securities Case of 1904
Election of 1908
Election of 1912
Triangle Shirtwaist Fire
Reforms
Amendments
16th Amendment (Income Tax)
17th Amendment (Direct Election of
Senators)
18th Amendment (Prohibition)
19th Amendment (Women’s Suffrage)
Political Reform
La Follette’s Fight against Political
Machines
Initiative, Referendum, and Recall
Legislation (Consumer Protection, Trusts, Financial
Reform, and Conservation)
Meat Inspection Act (1906)
Pure Food and Drug Act (1906)
Sherman Antitrust Act (1890)
Clayton Antitrust Act (1914)
Federal Reserve Act (1913)
Payne-Aldrich Tariff (1909)
Underwood Tariff (1913)
Antiquities Act (1906)
Ideas, Concepts, General Terms
Social [Problems and] Reform
Social Darwinism
Social Gospel Movement
Josiah Strong and Urbanization
WCTU and the Anti-Saloon League
Immigration and Subsequent Nativism
Technological Reform and Development
Scientific Management
Railroad Development and Corruption
The Frontier Thesis
Presidential Political Philosophies
TR’s Square Deal and New Nationalism
Wilson’s New Freedom
The Rhetorical Presidency