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U.S. History 1877-Present Videos 173 videos
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U.S. History 1877-Present 5: Muckrackers and Reformers 8488 Views
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Description:
It's a good thing muckrakers brought about political reform, because raking muck doesn't really seem all that productive. Didn't they have shovels back then?
Transcript
- 00:04
The period from the last years of the Gilded Age in the 1890s and early
- 00:08
1900s to the late 1920s is called the Progressive Era it was a time when
- 00:14
Americans decided to try out a new insurance company [Woman wearing progressive era shirt appears]
- 00:17
hey who can deny the appeal of flow okay it was actually a time when Americans
- 00:23
decided to try and do something about all the social issues that had been [Dirty clothing by foot of the bed]
Full Transcript
- 00:26
piling up like dirty socks in the corner let's say let's count them there was
- 00:30
women's lack of rights workers lack of rights unsafe and unsanitary cities
- 00:37
obscenely rich bazillion eras with poorly paid servants racial inequality [Social issues on piece of paper]
- 00:43
environmental destruction and rampant alcoholism and a whole bunch of other
- 00:48
corruption things that we won't even get into here so yep America had more issues
- 00:52
than that guy on our block who sells sculptures made from his own fingernails [Man stood beside fingernail sculptures]
- 00:56
okay so maybe we bought one it'll be worth something someday on you just wait
- 01:00
and see anyway for most of history America had had a serious case of denial
- 01:04
wasn't like from the center of Egypt not that now you know how most houses have a [Sign for denial appears on highway]
- 01:10
broken stair or a leaking faucet somewhere and everyone in the house [Faucet leaking water]
- 01:13
comes up with ridiculous workarounds like jumping over the stair or keeping
- 01:17
water bottles under the sink and then everyone gets so used to it that people
- 01:21
who want to actually fix the stairs or faucets just sound like complainers well
- 01:25
all of America's issues were like the broken stairs and faucets of the day at
- 01:30
least until the Progressive Era came in like an irate handyman because everybody [Handy man appears]
- 01:34
was used to the problems early activists came off as complainers and nit pickers
- 01:38
a lot of them were called muckrakers because they were bringing in ugly truth
- 01:42
to the surface however instead of shutting up muckrakers just kept getting [Man raking muck outside white house]
- 01:47
louder and louder eventually politicians listened and
- 01:50
became reformers who dramatically changed American society thank you
- 01:53
newspaper headline yeah anything get all that muck off their lawns is worth doing
- 01:58
however these changes weren't always all that cool some progressives fought for
- 02:03
the rights of the poor in a way that was downright insulting and there was no [Newspaper with headline poor people are stupid]
- 02:07
getting around the ugly undercurrent of racism and classism that had infected
- 02:11
the progressive movement for example even if [Man protesting for the poor]
- 02:14
progressives fought for the right to the white working poor many still wanted to
- 02:18
attack or remove non-white people and non-white culture we wonder what slow
- 02:23
would have to say about that yeah well probably something harsh but
- 02:26
funny hello just gets how to speak to people [Flo approaches protestor]
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