History 2020-002
America from 1865
Instructor: Gregory Miller
Due Date: February 16, 2011
Weekly Assignment 5
In the past, the Progressive Era was portrayed as a time when the United States implemented a number of enlightened policies, broadening electoral participation on the part of many Americans. Yet the Progressive Era was also a time when “jim crow” laws were widely implemented across the South, when immigration restrictions were debated (and eventually implemented in 1924), and when extending voting rights to women—half the population of the country—was resisted. What explains these differences? Discuss both enlightened and oppressive policies of the Progressive Era in your answer.
America’s “Progressive Era” was at best mildly progressive— and then only if you had the correct skin color, spoke the correct language, and were of approved ethnicity. Blacks, Jews, southern Europeans, and the Irish need not apply. White women were allowed to marry, or teach or nurse until they married.
ReplyDeleteAny real Progressive Era must and will include progress for all, and not merely some, of us. That means every racial and ethnic group and every social class, without exceptions due to immigration status, disability, or age.
Things are better now, if not good—and there are plenty of white male middle class politicians doing their damnest to shove those evil spirits back into the Pandora’s box of Moderism!
[And yes, your “on line” class notes continue to be read all these years later, and by folks who don’t even want credit for the course!]