About This Lesson
In Reform in Industrial America, students examine the groups and individuals who worked for political, economic, and social reform in America in the late 1800s and early 1900s. They discover that during this time of extremes and inequities in America, railroad tycoons and oil magnates lived in splendor in cities populated by impoverished immigrant factory workers, while many farmers struggled to survive; African Americans lived under Jim Crow laws that took away their civil rights; and women were still not allowed to vote. Students learn that populist farmers, muckrakers, urban reformers, suffragettes, civil rights leaders, and social reformers worked to ease the credit crunch, expose the excesses of big business at that time, improve tenement housing, obtain equal rights for African Americans and for women, and improve the lives of workers. They also examine President Theodore Roosevelt’s efforts to push for conservation and to break up the trusts. The material incorporates a rich array of civics-focused knowledge, questions, and activities.
This unit includes a Student Reader, Timeline Image Cards, and Teacher Guide, providing Guided Reading Supports and the following Additional Activities: nonfiction excerpts by civil rights leaders Jane Addams, Ida Tarbell, Ida B. Wells, W.E.B. Du Bois, and Booker T. Washington; fiction excerpts from Upton Sinclair’s The Jungle; a video about the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire; an activity on immigrant challenges today; domain vocabulary activity pages; and a Unit Assessment.