History essay

Chapter Reading: Chapter 19

Essay Question:

What assumptions and goals characterized progressivism as a philosophy, and how did it influence American society and politics domestically and internationally? How did progressive reformers confront the social, political, economic, and moral problems of their age, and to what extent were they successful?

Define the concepts of social justice and social control, and explain how both trends functioned in the Progressive Era. Identify the core issues within these trends, including the settlement house movement, women’s suffrage, support for immigrants and labor, prohibition, segregation and desegregation, education reform, and antivice activism.

Documents to include:

·      19.1

·      19.2

·      19.3

·      19.4

·      19.9

Considerations:

• broad areas of progressive reform: social justice, government efficiency and activism, inclusive democracy, regulation of big business
• the influence of middle-class values and assumptions in progressive thought
• tensions and contradictions within progressivism
• the goal of exporting American conceptions of democracy and freedom to the world
• Jim Crow and the nature of racist segregation