The Progressive Era

Beginning with an extensive overview essay of the period, this book focuses on the issues of the Progressive Era through contemporary accounts of the people involved. Each issue is presented with an introductory essay and multiple primary documents from the newspapers of the day, which illustrate both sides of the debate. This is a perfect resource for students interested in the controversial and tumultuous changes America underwent during the Industrial Age and up to the start of World War I.

With the death of southern reconstruction, Americans looked first westward and then abroad to fulfill their manifest destiny. Along the way, robber barons built railroads and oil trusts, populism burned across the prairies, currency went off the gold standard, immigrants poured into urban areas, and the United States won imperial outposts in Cuba and the Philippines. Beginning with an extensive overview essay of the period, this book focuses on the issues of the Progressive Era through contemporary accounts of the people involved.

Each issue is presented with an introductory essay and multiple primary documents from the newspapers of the day, which illustrate both sides of the debate. This is a perfect resource for students interested in the controversial and tumultuous changes America underwent during the Industrial Age and up to the start of World War I.

Series Forward
List of Illustrations
Introduction: The Progressive Era and Newspapers
The Census of 1890 Measures American Life and Defines Some of Its Problems
The Death of Sitting Bull and the Battle of Wounded Knee, December 1890
Nativist Fears Limit Chinese Immigration, May 1892
The Homestead Strike Pits Labor Against Management, 1892
Lynch Law Terrorizes Blacks in the South
Coxey's Army Marches on Washington, 1894
The Sinking of the Maine, Feb 15, 1898
The Treaty of Paris Launches America as an Imperialist Power, Dec. 10, 1898
The Turn of the 20th Century Brings Hopes and Fears
President William McKinley Is Assassinated, Sept. 6, 1901
America Backs the Panamanian Revolution, November 1903
The Socialist Party Challenges the Status Quo, 1904
The Triangle Shirt Waist Factory Fire, March 25, 1911
The Titanic Disaster, April 14, 1912
Women Demand the Right to Vote, 1911-1912
Congress Adopts the Federal Income Tax, February 1913
The Prohibition Movement Gains in the States and Congress, 1900-1913
Women March for Suffrage in Washington, March 1913
The 17th Amendment Reforms the Senate, May 1913
Ludlow Mine Massacre, April 1914
Appendix A: Chronology, 1890-1914
Appendix B: Newspapers Cited
Bibliography