HIST-H 106 Lecture Notes - Lecture 7: Upton Sinclair, Ida Tarbell, Jane Addams
Document Summary
Rampant economic expansion and urban growth led not only to overcrowding and racial tensions but to moral concerns over behavior in politics and culture. This concern was driven not only by the unscrupulous behavior on the part of businessmen but by the rise of urban cultural forms like dance halls and movies that promoted sexual freedom more extensively than in the past. Moral reformers set out to control behavior deemed immoral in both the business and political world and in the realm of entertainment as well. Progressives, like jane addams and many others, sought to temper the hell-bent drive for profits and growth with reforms in the era from the 1880s to the 1920s. Progressive writers exposed unsavory corporate business dealings of industrialists like. Henry lloyd, wealth against commonwealth (1903)-- showed unfair rebates used by standard oil. Ida tarbell, history of standard oil (1904)-- company purchased political favors. Upton sinclair, the jungle (1906)-- unsanitary practices in chicago meat packing plants.
