The Progressive Era: Primary Documents on Events from 1890 to 1914(Debating Historical Issues in the Media of the Time)

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.

Table of Contents:
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

About the Author :
ELIZABETH V. BURT is Associate Professor at the School of Communication, University of Hartford. She is the author of Women's Press Organizations, 1881-1999 (Greenwood Press, 2000), and has published many articles and book chapters on issues of the Progressive Era, social movements, and the woman suffrage movement.