Progressive Era Terms and presidents (T. Roosevelt and Wilson)

Progressive Era Terms

Standard Oil — A monopolistic oil company, founded in the late 19^th 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 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.           

Socialist Party — A political party in the U.S., founded by Eugene Debs 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.