The Progressive Era: US History 1890-1920

Recommended Databases:

US History in Context – begin with a reference article from a specialized encyclopedia, then move on to find videos, magazine and journal articles as well as primary sources in this database.
Proquest E-Book Central – use this database to locate non-fiction chapter books for details on your topic. Use MackinVia to access.
J-STOR – deep analysis and advanced research resources through primary sources and journal articles. Not recommended until student has developed context by reading reference articles, first.

In our book collection . . .

go to Dewey Decimal # 320-369 for books on law and social justice. Use books at 973.8 and 973.9 to find reference books, primary sources about the Progressive Era.
Eyewitness History: The Progressive Era – (973.8 Jay) is an important reference book that provides timelines, short biographies of important people of the era, and an appendix with excerpts from history-shaping documents and speeches.
Eyewitness History: America’s Gilded Age – (973.8 Jay) is another important reference book with an excellent appendix (tables of information, biographies, documents.)

Podcasts- download and listen, or view on your device:

Missouri State University offers free podcasts (with video) for an American History course that begins after the Civil War. There is an excellent lecture or two on the Progressive Era. Just go to I-tunes Store and search under “I-tunes U.” It’s free. It’s free. Here’s a direct link.
Teaching American History link has a few.
Library of Congress: Exploring the Progressive Era with primary documents – link

Primary Sources and more from the Web:

Advice on databases and web sites will save you tons of time at HBW’s Primary Source Portal
Speeches and documents from Progressive leaders – link
Best of History Web sites – link

Suggested Topics around which to develop your research question:

Women’s suffrage movement
Conditions for African-Americans in former slave states – Jim Crow laws
The Niagara Movement, W.E.B. du Bois (brings new voices into discussion of how to improve conditions for African Americans)
The Ku Klux Klan
Founding of NAACP and the Urban League
Public Health – improvements, the Great Influenza Pandemic of 1918-19
Ellis Island
Social Critics and Utopianism
Hawaiian Revolution
Chicago’s World Exposition
Machine Politics and Corruption (for example, in NYC or Chicago)
Temperance Movement (anti-liquor… resulted in Prohibition)
the Great Migration of African-Americans to the North
treatment of the mentally ill / insane asylums
working conditions in factories (Triangle Fire Incident)
Tenement Housing in burgeoning cities (Settlement House)
Immigration (and discrimination) – consider focus upon a particular ethnic group
Yellow Journalism
Muckraking
Organized Crime?
The Labor Movement (workers’ unions… fighting for limits on working hours, minimum wage, etc.)
Anti-Trust legislation (busting up monopolies)
Populism
Managing US Wealth and Trade: Payne-Aldrich Tariff
16th Amendment introduces a federal tax on income
US becomes a WORLD POWER: The Great White Fleet, Spanish-American War, American Expansionism beyond the Continental US, (and Cuba’s independence, and Puerto Rico’s absorption into the US)
Dollar Diplomacy – increased trade expands US control of economies overseas
Campaigns – Teddy Roosevelt, for example
Native Americans – the Bureau of Indian Affairs
Jazz
Harlem Renaissance
Campaign against Child Labor
the Gold Standard (Populism and the “Cross of Gold” speech by William Jennings Bryan)
Farming/ Agricultural crisis
Religious expansion and the “Social Gospel”
Improvements in Telecommunications and/or Transportation
Gold Rush
New Art Forms, Literary forms
Assembly Line Production and Standardization of Parts (Henry Ford and the Model T)
Establishing the US National Parks System
Moving Pictures are born… and censorship, too
Reforming BANKING – the Federal Reserve Act
World War I – mobilization
Civil Liberties during WWI
Baseball! The Black Sox Baseball Scandal
Segregation in Baseball