Chapter 21: Leading the Way: The Progressive Movement, 1890-1920Content check — U.S. History, Chapter 21: Leading the Way: The Progressive Movement, 1890-1920

B. the sinister business practices of Standard Oil

The muckrakers played a pivotal role in initiating the Progressive Era, because they spurred everyday Americans to action. Unlike earlier sensationalist journalists, the muckrakers told their stories with the explicit goal of galvanizing their readers and encouraging them to take steps to address the issues. With photographs and descriptions of real-life scenarios of which many Americans were unaware, the muckrakers brought the tribulations of child factory workers, the urban poor, and others into the living rooms of the middle class.

B. referendums

D. suffragists who protested outside the White House

A. He invited strikers and owners to the White House.

D. It established a federal banking system to oversee tariffs.

Wilson’s actions were limited by his belief in his New Freedom platform, which promised voters a small government. Still, he took a number of steps in the first year of his presidency to shore up the economy and push back against destructive trusts. With those goals accomplished, he largely left the Progressive agenda alone. As the 1916 election season approached, however, Wilson realized that his hands-off policy was not endearing him to voters, and he ended his first term in a flurry of Progressive legislation that reminded the voting public of all he could do for them.