Deck 22: The Progressive Era

Question 1

The chapter introduction tells the story of the Triangle Shirtwaist fire to make the point that

A) the time known as the progressive era was when modern city services such as police and fire
Departments spread across America.
B) reformers of the day sought to use government to curb abusive corporations and establish a good society.
C) industrial society increasingly had to face the negative consequences of decades of wrenching economic change.
D) economic depression was not the only harsh reality faced by anxious Americans at the turn of the century.

Answer 1

reformers of the day sought to use government to curb abusive corporations and establish a good society.

Question 2

The New England Kitchen was typical of the pattern of progressive reform in all of the following ways EXCEPT that

A) scientific expertise was enlisted for social uplift.
B) lower-or working-class community standards became the norm.
C) reform-minded women were integral to reform efforts.
D) reformers used both volunteerism and political action.

Answer 2

lower-or working-class community standards became the norm.

Question 3

Which one of the following ideas should NOT be associated with progressivism?

A) a belief in efficiency and planning
B) moral overtones that could be expressed as a desire to restore moral purity
C) a commitment to using government to curb the influence of "special interests"
D) a skeptical view of human nature and American potential

Answer 3

a skeptical view of human nature and American potential

Question 4

Which of the following is the best statement of the relationship between progressives and business?

A) Business and progressive leaders shared a commitment to progress through efficiency and modern managerial techniques.
B) Businessmen organized and funded political opposition to progressive political leaders.
C) Progressives agreed on the need to control big business by breaking up "the trusts."
D) When progressives gained political power, they eliminated the influence of the businessman and the boss.

Question 5

Which statement about various expressions of progressivism is true?

A) Such intellectual theorists of progressivism as Edward Ross or Thorstein Veblen believed strongly that
society should conform to certain abstracted and fixed natural laws of human behavior, regardless of social conditions or environmental influences.
B) The concept of "gas and water socialism"referred to the process by which reform mayors turned to
public ownership of city utilities early in the twentieth century.
C) "Sociological jurisprudence"refused to consider the social environment, stressing that legal precedent
was more important than experience.
D) The American philosophy that truth is relative and directly related to whether an individual proposal works is called empiricism.

Question 6

Which of the following statements about political progressivism at the local and state levels is most true?

A) Urban reforms strengthened middle-class control and improved efficiency.
B) Big-city mayors, controlled by corrupt political machines, were the main obstacles to progressive reform of municipal government.
C) Municipal reformers sought to replace traditional forms of city government like the commission or city manager.
D) In their quest for efficiency and expert rule, progressives tried to invent alternatives to direct democracy.

Question 7

Which of the four progressive-era amendments to the federal Constitution is NOT correctly identified?

A) authorizing a federal tax on incomes
B) providing for election of U.S. senators by the people, not the state legislatures
C) giving women the right to vote
D) establishing a two-term limit on the U.S. president

Question 8

What social welfare activist served as the first head of the new federal Children's Bureau in 1912?

A) Jane Addams
B) Margaret Sanger
C) Julia Lathrop
D) Florence Kelley

Question 9

What is an accurate description of the two competing brands of political progressivism in the 1912 presidential campaign (Theodore Roosevelt's "New Nationalism" and Woodrow Wilson's "New Freedom")?

A)The New Nationalism accepted concentrations of capital, labor, and government, but the New Freedom stressed competitiveness among small business and reduced government power.
B) The New Nationalism supported business and ignored social justice concerns, while the New Freedom held to the reverse emphasis.
C) Both welcomed assertive federal power and encouraged business growth.
D) Neither was truly progressive.

Question 10

As an effort to end prostitution, the ________ of 1910 prohibited the interstate transport of women for immoral purposes.

Question 11

After the turn of the century some black critics rejected the accommodation of Booker T. Washington's "________."

Question 12

Off-year election losses in 1914 pushed Wilson toward the social reforms of the New ________ he had once criticized as paternalistic and unconstitutional.

Question 13

In what ways was the Triangle Shirtwaist fire and its aftermath a case study of progressivism in action?

Question 14

What were the three main beliefs on which progressivism rested, where did they come from, and how did the "Brandeis Brief"
reflect them?

Question 15

What was the progressive method?

Question 16

Who were the "muckrakers,"
and what role did they play in promoting progressive reform?

Question 17

What were the commission and city-manager plans? How did they illustrate progressive approaches to reforming city government?

Question 18

What was the "Wisconsin idea"
and how did it work? Discuss two ways in which it was progressive.

Question 19

How was Theodore Roosevelt a conservative? In what ways a reformer?

Question 20

In what ways did Woodrow Wilson bring progressivism to high tide?

Question 21

Why did progressivism flower in the first two decades of the twentieth century?

Question 22

How did progressives redefine poverty? Why was that important? Where and why did progressive solutions for the problems of poverty fall short?

Question 23

What role did women play in progressive reform, and how did their participation shape the movement?

Question 24

In what ways were immigration restriction, prohibition, and attacks on vice "progressive"
reforms?

Question 25

Theodore Roosevelt has been called the "conservative as reformer."
How accurate is that description?

Question 26

Compare and contrast the New Nationalism and the New Freedom. In your view, which was a more realistic approach to the concentration of corporate and industrial power?

Question 27

Compare and contrast progressives and populists. Why were progressives more successful reformers?

Question 28

Evaluate the strengths and weaknesses of progressivism.
ch22 Key