From Reconstruction to the Progressive Era
____1. You may choose to answer One (1) question, at length for 100% or Two (2) questions for 50% each.
For one question, write at least six (6) paragraphs in the essay.
For two questions, write at least four (4) paragraphs for each essay.
(These numbers include the introduction and conclusion paragraphs)
____2. Write in formal academic style (FAS).
____3. Please put the number of the question you are answering at the beginning of each
of your essays. For example, 1. or 2.
____4. Please double space, use black ink and use plain font (Times, Arial, or Courier.)
____5. Please make paragraph indents when you begin a paragraph or use >> to show a paragraph break
____6. If you do not use MS Word, please save in RTF (Rich Text Format), PDF, or Adobe before submission
__7. Please use the book, anything under Content, and our discussion boards. Do not use outside sources, including AI. If you use outside sources, I will have to flunk your work with a 0. I need to discern how much you have learned from the book and class.
___8. Do NOT plagiarize. When in doubt, give a citation.
___9. This test covers Reconstruction through the Progressive Era. Do not use information past that era.
Questions:
1.Using Nash and the Midterm Discussion Board, explain how the Gilded Age paved the way for the Progressive Movement. What was so wrong with the Gilded Age that Progressives felt the need to make drastic changes from the grassroots to Federal law? Discuss two changes if you are writing both essays and four changes if you are writing just one essay.
You MUST cite Nash AND at least two posts from the Midterm Discussion Board. This lets me know where the information comes from.
You may use first person but DO NOT USE SLANG, CONTRACTIONS, OR IDIOMS.
2. To you, which events seem key to understanding U.S. history from 1877 to 1920? Why? Discuss the events, give some background information, then go into detail about why you believe they are critical. Be sure to use Nash for this response. Be sure to cite where the information comes from after you use it in the essay (in-line citations. Do NOT use a bibliography or list).
For one essay, consider four key events. If you are writing both essays, two events are enough.
Remember, these are YOUR key events. To some people they may not seem important, but you can see the ramifications. Your essay will defend their importance.
You may use first person, but do not use slang, contractions, or idioms.
Posts:
What is bologna? Disgusting
Now here’s another Progressive era topic that I hope you find interesting, students. Progressives were very much against the free and loose meat production industry. This is where animals were killed in alleys, cut up on the pavement or dirt, and their parts were processed in vats that often did not have coverings. And cleanliness was not existent. The filth, the flies, the rats that fell in and got ground up, the fingers from workers, the snots they blew in….
Upton SInclair wrote The Jungle to show why the U.S. needed to stop being a democracy and become a socialist nation. He had never been to a meat packing plant, but he did interview people who had worked there. The Jungle is fiction, and a lot of if cannot be corroborated. However, it made so many people sick just reading it, they demanded reforms. Progressives ran on a “Clean Meat” ticket and got elected. It was a dark day for Armor and other meat packers when they were all shut down across the nation and given but a few months to clean up their act and bring their plants up to the new sanitation code.
If you asked Teddy Roosevelt what was in his bologna, he would tell you that after he found a human finger with a ring in the bologna, he never ate it again. Back then, there was no presliced meats. You bought it deli style, or you purchased the huge hunk of it to cut yourself. The White House bought a huge bologna to cut up. When Teddy felt hungry late at night, he went down to the kitchen to make a snack and… yes. There was no more bologna in his life, not ever again.
Post:
What is soap? Horrible ingredients
Hum, what’s in the soap you use on your face? Well, before the Progressives common ingredients were turpentine, gasoline, lead, oil, and animal refuse. Soap was made from animal fat and then given a ‘sting’ so consumers thought it was cleaning. What it did was give cancer.
Progressives saw this issue and addressed it by requiring the government to pass a law that all facial products, including soap, have a list of ingredients. These HAD to be proven harmless or the product could not be sold.
Oh, and about the animal refuse…it was crystalline urine.
Post:
The progressives working conditions
The progressive movement made us aware of some pretty poor conditions in which workers lived. These issues were only made aware because of authors like Jacob Riis (in “How the Other Half Lives”) and Upton Sinclair (in “The Jungle”). These men exposed the actual working conditions of women, men, and children working long hours and in dangerous conditions without any protection or compensation if they got hurt. Sinclair also wrote about the unsanitary handling of meat and the lack of cleanliness in the industries.
