USA Modern History: Populist reformers.

Crime: Criminal Behavior. Criminal Justice Glossary. Criminal Investigation. Samenow's Inside the Criminal Mind.
Brian Innes's The Body in Question: Exploring the Cutting Edge of Forensic Science.

Psychology: Biopsychology. Evolutionary Psychology.
Personality Psychology Psychological research methods.
Psychology books: Know How: Guided Programs for Inventing Your Own Best Future by Leslie Cameron-Bandler. Nature of Prejudice by Gordon W. Allport. Learned Optimism by Martin E. P. Seligman. Pessimism (defensive) (Norem).

Political science: Introduction to Political Science. Political Science Glossary.
Political science books: Political Theory: The Classic Texts and Their Continuing Relevance by Joshua Kaplan.
USA Modern History: Barack Obama's The Audacity of Hope. Challenges for freedpeople after the Civil War. Challenges by workers to industrialization. Populist reformers. USA Modern History Glossary. Malcolm X autobiography.

Related: Death and Dying. Ecology. Enneagram. Evolution.

Disclaimer Links. Books read recently. Best books read. Harry Potter books.

Text book [AGBV, 2005]:
American Government: Brief Version

by James Q. Wilson
for a class on Political Science.
Chapters:

What Should We Know About American Government?
The Constitution
Civil Liberties and Civil Rights
Federalism
Public Opinion and the Media
Political Parties and Interest Groups
Campaigns and Elections
Congress
The Presidency
The Bureaucracy
The Judiciary
Making Domestic Policy
Making Foreign and Military Policy
American Government: Continuity and Change

Glossary: A, B, C, D, E, F, G, H, I, J, K, L, M, N, O, P, Q, R, S, T, U, V, W, X, Y, Z.

The Questions

1877-1900: middle-class reformers sought to mediate between what they perceived as two dangerous groups:

Arrogant industrialists.
Discontented workers.

What was the vision of these reformers for the nation?
What did they fear?
What was some of their work?

Some Answers

These people were often called "Progressives" though they had many different priorities.

The main visions of these reformers for the nation:

A stable society with the values of the reformers, who were primarily white, Protestant, and middle-class.
Introduction of laws to protect their way of life.

What they feared:

Violence of worker reaction to the increasing abuse (including reduced wages and increased hours) of discontented workers by greedy industrialists.
Violence resulting from agitation by anarchists.
"Immoral" people, including unwed mothers and alcoholics.
Lack of power (votes for women).

Some of their work:

1880s	Jacob Riis: photographer of the NYC slums, showing poverty, child laborers.
1886	Shelter homes for women in Salt Lake City and Denver.
1887	Dawes Severalty Act: an attempt to encourage Indian assimilation. Removed Reservations. Allocated parcels of land to Indians for farming or grazing. Gave the rest to American citizens. Alice Fletcher worked with Indians to survey the land to ensure that several thousand received (and were not cheated by the white realtors out of) good land due to them.
1889	Jane Addams opened Hull House (the first "settlement house" in USA), modeled in part on such houses in Britain, to instill middle-class white values in immigrants, to speed acculturation through teaching English, health, personal hygiene. By 1900, more than 200 "settlement houses" had been created in the USA.
1890s	Protestants began sponsoring homes for abandoned Chinese women.
1890	Formation of National Woman Suffrage Association (NWSA). First president: Elizabeth Cady Stanton. Political activism, international cooperation, distanced from the working class.
1892	General Federation of Woman's Clubs formed: excluded African-Americans.
1892	National Association of Colored Women formed: Spoke against lynching mobs and segregationists.

Other work included:

Reinforcement of gender roles.
Graduated income tax.
Lowering tariffs.
Children's bureau, to get children from factories into schools.
Referendums (legislature proposes) and initiatives (citizens propose): process set up to allow influence of government by citizens (though subverted today).

Criticisms of the Progressives include:

They addressed the results of problems but not the root causes of problems.
While they said they opposed or disbelieved social Darwinism, they tended to act as if they were superior, and as if their views of society were the fit ideas that should survive.

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