| Term | Definition |
|---|
| Progressivism | The movement in the late 1800s to increase democracy in America by curbing the power of the corporation. It fought to end corruption in government and business, and worked to bring equal rights of women and other groups that had been left behind during the industrial revolution. |
| Populism | Farm-based movement of the late 1800s that arose mainly in the area from Texas to the Dakotas and grew into a joint effort between farmer and labor groups against big business and machine-based politics. The movement became a third party in the election of 1892. |
| Mugwumps | A group of renegade Republicans who supported 1884 Democratic presidential nominee Grover Cleveland instead of their party's nominee, James G. Blaine. |
| Henry George | He wrote Progress and Poverty in 1879, which made him famous as an opponent of the evils of modern capitalism. |
| Edward Bellamy | In 1888, he wrote Looking Backward, 2000-1887, a description of a utopian society in the year 2000. |
| Jacob Riis | A Danish immigrant, he became a reporter who pointed out the terrible conditions of the tenement houses of the big cities where immigrants lived during the late 1800s. He wrote How The Other Half Lives in 1890. |
| Muckrakers | This term applies to newspaper reporters and other writers who pointed out the social problems of the era of big business. The term was first given to them by Theodore Roosevelt. |
| Ida Tarbell | A leading muckraker and magazine editor, she exposed the corruption of the oil industry with her 1904 work A History of Standard Oil. |
| Lincoln Steffens | Writing for McClure's Magazine, he criticized the trend of urbanization with a series of articles under the title Shame of the Cities. |
| The Jungle | This 1906 work by Upton Sinclair pointed out the abuses of the meat packing industry. The book led to the passage of the 1906 Meat Inspection Act. |
| Robert La Follette | Member of the House, senator and Governor of the state of Wisconsin, he brought about many democratic reforms in the state's politics, including the nomination of candidates by direct vote and the regulation of railroad rates. He also introduced the idea of direct appeal to the electorate on questions of policy, called the referendum. |
| Direct Primary | An election that is open to all votes and all parties, which decides on the candidates of a party. |
| Referendum | When the voters decide on an issue that was previously rejected by the state's lawmakers. |
| Initiative | Citizens can develop and vote on a law that the state legislature chooses not to consider. |
| Recall | When the citizens decide to remove a public official from office due to incompetence or failure to do the job. |
| Secret Ballot | Voters do not reveal who they vote for or how they vote on an issue because their decision is made in private. This keeps the election fair and free from threat or intimidation. |
| 17th Amendment | Passed in 1913, this amendment to the Constitution calls for the direct election of senators by the voters instead of their election by state legislatures. |
| National Woman Suffrage Association | From 1869, Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony founded it. Cady Stanton served as its president until 1892. This organization led to the introduction in 1878 of a constitutional amendment for women's suffrage. The amendment failed until it became law as the 19th Amendment in 1920. |
| Booker T. Washington | Author of Up from Slavery (1901), he led the Tuskegee Movement, which stressed economic progress for blacks instead of pursuing civil rights. He was opposed by W.E.B. Du Bois, who led the Niagara Movement, an early effort to achieve legal progress for blacks. |
| W.E.B. Du Bois | Editor of The Crisis and author of The Souls of Black Folk (1903), he was one of the most influential civil rights leaders of the early 1900s. He urged blacks to stand up for civil rights as part of the Niagara Movement, which he helped create. He was the first black to receive a doctorate from Harvard in 1895. |
| National Association for the Advancement of Colored People | Founded by W.E.B. Du Bois, it emerged out of the Niagara Movement in 1909. It worked for equal rights for all Americans, but it failed to achieve lasting civil rights legislation during the early 1990s. |
| United Mine Workers | A 1902 coal worker's strike called for an eight-hour work day and higher wages. Theodore Roosevelt stepped in and threatened the use of troops to settle the strike. It was the first time the government stepped in a labor dispute, but the result was improved conditions for the mine workers. |
| Hepburn Act | This 1906 law used the Interstate Commerce Commission to regulate the maximum charge that railroads to place on shipping goods. |
| Pure Food and Drug Act | This law requires manufacturers to tell the truth about their food and drug products. |
| Newlands Act | This 1913 law provided for arbitration of railroad wage disputes. |
| Bull Moose Party | The Republicans were badly split in the 1912 election, so Roosevelt broke away forming his own Progressive Party (or Bull Moose Party because he was "fit as a bull moose..."). His loss led to the election of Democratic nominee Woodrow Wilson, but he gained more third party votes than ever before. |
| Federal Reserve Act | Sparked by the Panic of 1893 and 1907, the 1913 Federal Reserve Act created the Federal Reserve System, which issued paper money controlled by government banks. |
| Clayton Anti-trust Act | The law allowed President Wilson greater trust-busting powers than any president before him. |
Combine with other sets
Share on Facebook
Share on MySpace