Houghton Mifflin Social Studies
Chapter 17, Lesson 1: The Shame of the Cities (pp. 498-506)
I. A Time for Change
B. Around 1900, journalists known as muckrakers began investigating and writing about political corruption, unfair business practices, and human misery in the cities.
C. Settlement houses, like Hull House in Chicago, were community centers that provided daycare, education, and other services to immigrants and poor people.
II. Educational Reform
B. Progressives wanted education to move away from rote learning and to become more active and more relevant to students' lives.
B. In many cities, Progressives helped pass housing laws that required landlords to build safe buildings that had fire escapes and windows.
C. The urban planning movement also worked to improve cities through beautiful architecture.
B. Reformers used commissions and investigations to expose corruption in city governments and to gain control of them.
C. Reformers improved city governments by changing the way elections were run, and by introducing the commission and the city manager forms of government.
Lesson at a Glance Outline
A. The Progressive movement began around 1900 and sought basic social, economic, and governmental reforms.
A. Progressives wanted schools to "Americanize" immigrants by teaching English and promoting middle class values.
III. City Planning
A. Urban Progressives called for zoning laws and city planning to improve the living and working conditions of people in cities.
IV. Reforming City Politics
A. Before reform, incompetent people often held important offices in city governments simply because they had been loyal to a political party.
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