HIS 216 Lecture Notes - Lecture 5: The Kallikak Family, Thomas Mott Osborne, Prison Reform
13 Nov 2017
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Document Summary
The gilded age (1870-1900) - dangerous classes & mugwump reformers. Progressive era (1890-1920) - business interests - exposure & reform. Countering corruption: mugwumps election fraud, intimidation, vote-selling - from 1880s, the australian ballot (official, secret, etc. ) Illiterate voters? patronage appointments in government & police - the merit system & civil service tests - federal pendleton. Act, 1883, but not at the local level . Exposing the system : muckrakers early 20th c. , investigative journalism, exposes corruption. Lincoln steffens, mcclure"s,1902-5, respectable & powerful businessmen in league with corrupt politicians - private vs. public interest next up: the experts use science / social science to confront crime & punishment, but moralism never goes away . The fate of progressive prison reform (a) (b) tensions between experts & wardens & guards (c) overcrowding, underfunding, lack of public concern. Final thoughts criminal behavior as a hereditary defect, associated with insanity, feeble-mindedness .
