TEACHER’S GUIDE
• Break students into small groups and ask each group to research the
platforms of the various political parties that took part in the presidential
campaign of 1912. Students will assess the ideas contained in the platforms of the Democratic, Republican, Progressive, and Socialist parties
and conduct a mock political convention where students express their
organizations’ goals.As a follow-up, ask students to write journal entries
that describe the similarities and differences of these political parties.
• The eighteenth and nineteenth amendments to the U.S. Constitution,
which banned alcohol and gave women the right to vote, were either
lobbied for or enacted during the Progressive Era. Ask students to
research primary sources such as speeches, posters, songs and letters to
learn of the fierce Progressive effort made to get these amendments
ratified. Ask students to create lobbying campaigns to push for issues
they feel strongly about and present them to the class. Students may find
advertisements related to the Ohio Prohibition Movement at this Web
site: www.cohums.ohio-state.edu/history/ohiodry/brdsds.htm
• Ask students to read the writings of major leaders involved in social
reform such as John Dewey, Jane Addams and Lincoln Steffens, and analyze
why some of their reform proposals were adopted and others were not.
• Ask students to develop case studies examining the work of various
Progressive leaders such as Carrie Chapman Catt, Robert LaFollette, and
Florence Kelly. Students may create a chart identifying the reforms
proposed by these influential Americans.
TEACHER’S GUIDE
• Lisandrelli, Elaine Slivinski. Ida B.Wells-Barnett: Crusader Against
Lynching. Enslow Publishers, Springfield, NJ; 1998.
TM
THE PROGRESSIVE
MOVEMENT
Periodically, Internet Resources are updated on our Web site at
www.LibraryVideo.com
• www.history.rochester.edu/fuels/tarbell/MAIN.HTM
The University of Rochester presents the full text of Ida Tarbell’s The
History of the Standard Oil Company.
• xroads.virginia.edu/~HYPER/SINCLAIR/toc.html
The University of Virginia offers the complete version of Upton
Sinclair’s The Jungle.
• digital.library.arizona.edu/bisbee/main/iww.php
The University of Arizona’s Digital Library provides students with a
wealth of primary source material relating to the Industrial Workers of
the World.
• Three Worlds Meet (Origins–1620)
• The Era of Colonization (1585–1763)
• Slavery & Freedom
• The American Revolution
• A New Nation (1776–1815)
• Expansionism
• Democracy & Reform
• Causes of the Civil War
• The Civil War
• Reconstruction & Segregation (1865–1910)
• Industrialization & Urbanization
(1870–1910)
• Immigration & Cultural Change
• A Nation in Turmoil
Teacher’s Guides Included
and Available Online at:
• The Progressive Movement
• U.S. & The World (1865–1917)
• The Great War
• The Roaring Twenties
• The Great Depression
& The New Deal
• World War II
• Post-War U.S.A.
• The Cold War
• Civil Rights
• The Vietnam War
• The Middle East
• U.S. Politics (1960–1980)
• U.S. Politics (1980–2000)
800-843-3620
Suggested Print Resources
• Chernow, Ron. Titan: The Life of John D. Rockefeller, Sr. Random
House, New York, NY; 1998.
• Fink, Leon. Ed. Major Problems in the Gilded Age and the Progressive
Era. Houghton Mifflin, Boston, MA; 2001.
(Continued)
5
Grades 5–12
TEACHER’S GUIDE
Jeffrey W. Litzke, M.Ed.
Curriculum Specialist, Schlessinger Media
Rudolph Lea
Historian
COMPLETE LIST OF TITLES
Suggested Internet Resources
TEACHER’S GUIDE
Teacher’s Guide Copyright 2003 by Schlessinger Media,
a division of Library Video Company
D6774
P.O. Box 580,Wynnewood, PA 19096 • 800-843-3620
V7014
Program Copyright 1996, 2003 by Schlessinger Media
Executive Producer:Andrew Schlessinger
Original production produced and directed by Invision Communications, Inc.
All rights reserved.
T
his guide is a supplement designed for teachers
to use when presenting programs in the United
States History series.
Before Viewing: Give students an introduction
to the topic by relaying aspects of the program
summary to them. Select pre-viewing discussion
questions and vocabulary to provide a focus for
students when they view the program.
After Viewing: Review the program and vocabulary, and use the follow-up activities to inspire
continued discussion. Encourage students to
research the topic further with the Internet and
print resources provided.
This program correlates to the following
Prentice Hall textbooks:
The American Nation: Chapter 22
America: Pathways to the Present: Chapters 7 and 9
Program Summary
Vocabulary
Socialist Party — A political party in the U.S., founded by Eugene Debs
The Progressive Movement at the turn of the 20th century was a response to
the major social problems left in the wake of the nation’s unbridled industrial
expansion and the massive influx of new immigrants from Europe.
Progressive-era reformers sought to gain citizen control over the nation’s
monopolistic corporations and had some success in improving the lives and
working conditions of America’s industrial workforce.Activists such as Jane
Addams and Ida Tarbell addressed issues of women’s suffrage and child labor
and exposed corporate excesses. Muckrakers like Lincoln Steffens and Upton
Sinclair attacked slums, political bosses and squalid conditions in America’s
meat processing industry. Other more radical groups such as the Socialists
and the Industrial Workers of the World emerged and had substantial political
adherents, but they were often maligned and mistreated because their beliefs
placed them outside of the mainstream of the nation.
While Progressive crusaders did not actively address issues of race,AfricanAmerican leaders Ida B.Wells-Barnett, Booker T.Washington and W.E.B. DuBois
advocated different approaches for dealing with lynching, racism and cultural
bias, setting the course for significant future progress in the area of civil rights.
Progressives found political allies in Presidents Theodore Roosevelt and
Woodrow Wilson.Although they had different political agendas, both helped
ensure that reforms such as the Pure Food and Drug Act, the Clayton AntiTrust Act and the Federal Reserve Act were passed.While World War I brought
the Progressive Movement to a halt, the spirit of reform would reemerge
strongly in the future.
in 1901, that advocated that workers should own the means of production.
Debs received nearly one million votes in the presidential election of 1912.
Industrial Workers of the World — A union that believed that
workers should own the means of production but which also believed in
using strikes and sabotage to achieve their goal.The organization was also
known as the “Wobblies.”
Suffragists — Reformers, such as Susan B. Anthony, who worked to
obtain the right for women to vote.
1901 — President McKinley is assassinated;Theodore Roosevelt becomes
president.
1904 — Ida Tarbell writes an expose of the Standard Oil Trust Company.
1905 — Industrial Workers of the World is formed.
1906 — Upton Sinclair publishes The Jungle.
1906 — The federal Meat Inspection Act is passed.
1906 — The Pure Food and Drug Act is enacted.
1909 — The NAACP is founded.
1909 — The National Conservation Commission is formed.
1912 — Woodrow Wilson is elected president of the United States.
1914 — The Clayton Anti-Trust Act is passed.
1914 — World War I begins in Europe.
Standard Oil — A monopolistic oil company, founded in the late 19th
century by John D. Rockefeller, that controlled much of the production, refining and transport of oil in the United States.
Progressivism — An American reform movement within both major political parties, from about 1890 to World War I, that pressed for legislation to
reform many aspects of America’s urban and industrial system.
Hull House — The first social settlement house in America. Founded by
Jane Addams and Ellen Gates Star in Chicago in 1889, it served as a shelter
and an educational center, especially for children of immigrants.
child labor reform — One of the political and social goals of Progressives
which sought to regulate the age and the conditions of work for children.
Americanize — The act of getting people of different ethnic cultures to
change their ways by adopting American culture.
Tammany Hall — First organized after the Revolution as a patriotic society
in New York City, it later became a political club and then the Democratic
political machine that controlled the politics of the city.
muckrakers — A term first used by President Theodore Roosevelt to
describe writers and journalists such as Lincoln Steffens, Ida Tarbell, and
Upton Sinclair, who exposed the problems of America’s industrial system.
The Jungle — A shocking, best-selling 1906 book written by Upton Sinclair
that addressed dangerous and unsanitary conditions in America’s meat processing plants.
The Pure Food and Drug Act — A 1906 law passed by the Roosevelt
administration that created agencies to ensure that food and medicines
produced by American corporations were safe.
trust — During the Progressive Era, the term first used to describe a business
monopoly.
trust-busting — A term to describe legal and court actions that attempted
to break up the trusts and to make monopolies illegal.
Clayton Anti-Trust Act — A law approved in 1914 that increased government regulation of business, attempting to limit monopolistic practices by
America’s largest corporations.
Federal Reserve Act — A law passed by Congress in 1913 that created the
Federal Reserve System, the United States central banking system that regulates the nation’s money supply.
The Progressive Party — The political party founded by Theodore
Roosevelt to enable him to run as a third party candidate in the election of
1912.Also known as the Bull Moose Party.
Plessy vs. Ferguson — A decision by the U.S. Supreme Court in 1896 that
legalized the segregation of the races through “separate but equal” facilities.
lynching — A particularly brutal vigilante or mob killing of another person.
Thousands of African Americans were lynched in the South in the late 19th
and early 20th centuries.
(Continued)
2
3
4
Time Line
1881 — Clara Barton assists in founding the American Red Cross.
1881 — Booker T.Washington founds the Tuskegee Institute in Alabama.
1889 — Jane Addams and Ellen Gates Star open Hull House in Chicago.
1890 — The Sherman Anti-Trust Act is enacted.
1892 — Almost two hundred African-Americans are lynched in the United
States.
Pre-viewing Discussion
• Progressive-era reformers sought to improve the lives and working conditions of the American people.Ask students to discuss ways they would
suggest to meet the goals of equal opportunity and equal protection
under the law today.
• What is a monopoly? Ask students to define the term in their own words
and speculate about the effects this type of business practice has on society.
• Ask students to develop character sketches of individuals who wish to
try to make society a better place. Students may discuss people they
know or others such as community and national leaders who are trying
to improve the lives and living conditions of others.
Follow-up Discussion
• Change to the civil service system was one of the issues many Progressive
reformers championed.Ask students to speculate about why Progressives
saw this as such an important goal.
• The Sixteenth Amendment instituted a graduated income tax on individuals
in the United States.Ask students to speculate about the reasons behind
this decision and offer their opinions on its historic and modern effects.
• Socialist Eugene Debs received almost one million votes in the presidential election of 1912.Ask students to discuss why his views concerning
workers owning the means of production were so popular during the
Progressive Era. Students may speculate about the impact a socialist
presidential candidate might have in America today.
Follow-up Activities
• Ask students to research and summarize various Supreme Court decisions made during the Progressive Era, such as United States vs. E.C.
Knight Company (1895), Muller vs. Oregon (1908), and Standard Oil of
New Jersey vs. United States (1911).Ask students to evaluate the court’s
effect on the Progressive movement — did the court’s decisions in these
cases help or hinder Progressive reforms?
(Continued)