Progressives+Era

AN AGE OF REFORM

media type="custom" key="12147188" Finally, we have arrive at the beginning of the twentieth century of American history. Theodore Roosevelt! Flappers! WWI! Rock and roll! WWII! The Great Depression! Korean and Vietnam! Hippies! Yuppies! Reagan! FDR! Prohibition! Watergate! The Berlin Wall!

media type="custom" key="12147194" The ascension of Theodore Roosevelt to the presidency after the assassination of William McKinley in 1901 is an important historical moment, and we shall use “TR” as a metaphor for the United States in the early moments of the 20th century. Roosevelt would re-energize the presidency and use it as a vehicle to provide vigorous leadership for the nation when (especially when compared to the relatively sedate presidents of the Gilded Age). TR would bring his brand of energy to reform much of the corruption he saw as endangering democracy in the industrial United States of JP Morgan and John Rockefeller, and he was not shy about engaging in combat with any “bully” he saw as abusing their power and taking advantage of the American people. TR offered a “Square Deal” to the American people based on control of corporations, consumer protection, and conservation of natural resources. The era of “progressive” reformers was begun, and TR was its initial catalyst, even as he had many allies (and as many powerful enemies). The tone in the country was different in 1904 than it had been in 1884. The momentum was behind change, not continuity.

media type="custom" key="12147208" This lecture deals with the expansionist view of American imperialists such as Theodore Roosevelt, and consequent actions in the Philippines, Cuba, and Panama (and Panama Canal). We will look at the result of America as a colonial power in Asia, and the Roosevelt Corollary to the Monroe Doctrine in the "American lake" that was the Caribbean Sea and our intervention into Latin America dozens of times in the first half of the 20th century.

media type="custom" key="12147218" There were plenty of critics yesterday and today for the American-engineered “revolution” in Panama which allowed the United States to construct and operate a canal from the Atlantic to the Pacific Ocean in the early 20th century. But Theodore Roosevelt had no excuses: “Why others talked and talked, I acted!” The Panama Canal is a fine example of a newly assertive and powerful United States re-shaping the land around it to fit American needs for “empire” and a “sphere of interest.”

media type="custom" key="12147226" We look at the late 19th and early 20th century investigative journalists known as the "muckrakers," and their symbiotic relationship to the Progressive political movement and Theodore Roosevelt. We will look in detail on the symbiotic relationship between investigative journalists, social activists, and politicians in reforming and "progressing" democracy in America.

media type="custom" key="12147232" Many early 20th century reformers, often coming from the educated and "sober" middle classes, offered a vision of American progress that desired to clean up the corruption at both the highest levels of economic life (ie. the Robber Barons") and at the lower levels of urban government (big city "political machines") - and their movement, led by its initial champion Theodore Roosevelt, with an assist by muckraking journalists," came to be known as "Progressivism." This lecture explains the policies of the Progressives mostly at the local and state levels.

media type="custom" key="12147248" William M. Tweed and Tammany Hall: Party Machine, Party Boss, scoundrel.

media type="custom" key="12149442" This lecture deals with the events and issues raised by the Charles van Doren television quiz show scandal of the 1950s, and what the reaction to that scandal tells us about American attitudes towards integrity and cheating. Who gets hurt in such a situation? Is it a big deal? Why? Why not?

media type="custom" key="12149452" This lecture deals the phenomenon of cheating in athletics through the examples of Lance Armstrong, Barry Bonds, Marion Davis, Tiger Woods, and other successful athletes accused of cheating. We will look at the reality of steroids and whether using "performance enhancing drugs" even matters. Is America a country that is dedicated to winning at all costs? What about integrity? What about "cheating"?

media type="custom" key="12149466" Cycling is perhaps the "dirtiest" of all contemporary sports -- and that is saying a lot! Worse than baseball, worse than track and field! But there is a professional cycling team called "Slipstream" that is dedicated to "winning clean" above all, even if it means they have to get blood tests on a routine basis. Listen to ex-doper David Millar talk about sports and ethics, and watch this unusual team of athletes. Perhaps the fact that a team like this exists at all is the biggest statement of all.

media type="custom" key="12149484" From Arthur Dimmesdale on we have looked at some length at lying and dishonesty in this class. But can truth and candor be taken too far? Can lying play a useful role in society when it is used in small doses to protect the feelings of others? Is the whole truth a good thing, but saying the whole truth not necessarily good? Or should we have the brutal truth, and nothing but the truth? This video shows a fictitious example of a society where lying is unknown. Watch and make up your own mind.

media type="custom" key="12149492" It would appear that cheating in our high schools and colleges is rampant, and it brings up lots of questions about the cost of success and worth of integrity in our society. Are you horrified in watching this? Or are you not surprised?

media type="custom" key="12149506" There is this strange duality of an education system that preaches to students to be unique and to follow their own individual path while assessing them on very standardized, unforgiving manner: grades, SAT score, acceptance to a prestigious college -- or not (ie. community college and a job at Burger King). Can anyone blame students for wanting to cut corners?

media type="custom" key="12149532" Is there such a thing as right and wrong? Or is everything relatives? Is there a divine law in a universe full of spirit and meaning -- or are we alone in a world where the strong take what they want, the weak suffer what they must? We look at this question through the prism of a respected physician who faces a quandary on what to do about his mistress in the Woody Allen film, "Crimes and Misdemeanors."

media type="custom" key="12147266" The verse of Emma Lazarus about the Statue of Liberty has long since entered into American lore: "Give me your tired, your poor, / Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free.” It holds up the idea of American as literally the place where the trash of other countries could enjoy a second chance at life, and it only adds to the effect that the author was a Jewess from Russia and an immigrant to America herself. Those entering America in search of the “American dream” continue to stream into the United States today as yesterday, although often nowadays the immigration is illegal and surreptitious at our southern border. But for a nation like the United States made up of immigrants, the Statue of Liberty has huge resonance, and almost all of us in one way or another is not unlike the immigrant faces in this video.

media type="custom" key="12147274" The “Gospel of Wealth” held that any American could become rich, if only he worked hard and was a “good Christian.” Indeed, Godliness was supposedly in with riches, and God would reward the pious and industrious with material success. Russell Conwell gave this “Acres of Diamonds” speech some 6,000 times all around the world to receptive audiences.

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media type="custom" key="12147288" There is perhaps no symbol more notable than the “skyscraper” for advertising the exciting new prospects of city life at the beginning of the 20th century in the United States. Made possible by steel girders and steel elevator cables along with plate glass window, the skyscraper is a testament to man’s victory over gravity – an example of the “vertical city” which brings high technology and cultural diversity together into a complex mix of rich and poor, native born and immigrant which makes urban America the cutting edge environment of America of 1904. Why stay down on the farm when you could go live in as exciting a place as Chicago or New York?

media type="custom" key="12147294" This video in heart wrenching and harrowing details explains the infamous Triangle Shirtwaist fire in a sweatshop in New York during 1911. Of the 500 employees in this business, 146 of them died; this very worthwhile video explains exactly why Progressive reformers were so able to get public opinion on their side. We post this video precisely because of the graphic, visceral nature of the footage and highly recommends it.

media type="custom" key="12149244" We look at complicated reactions to late 19th century social conditions in America from the "liberal" and "feminine," as well as the "conservative" and "masculine" viewpoints. We use these generalizations to explore complicated points of view on what kind of a country America should be in the "Progressive" era.

media type="custom" key="12149256" This lecture introduces the differing visions of national identity of unity and diversity ("e pluribus unum") that will lead into a full Socratic seminar. We shall see how the vast majority of Americans define the United States as a county that esteems both diversity and unity, but we will also look at how they can sharply and perhaps inevitably come into conflict. How much unity can we have before we smother minority cultures and languages in a blanket of oppression? How much diversity can we have before we undercut the idea of a shared national culture which gives our country cohesion? We will look at this through the two metaphors of the "melting pot" and the "salad bowl."

media type="custom" key="12149262" This lecture deals with the election of Woodrow Wilson and his election in 1912 over a split Republican ticket; and his consequent "New Freedom" and the attack on "the triple wall of privilege" - the tariff, the banks, the trusts. This is the high point of the Progressive movement, as President Wilson takes it to the federal level from the "laboratories of democracy" at the state level.