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Thursday, February 17, 2011

Chapter 31 - Progressivism and the Republican Roosevelt 1901 – 1912


Examine the progressive era.  As America moved into the 20th century, the fervor of the progressive movement fought against monopoly, corruption, inefficiency, and social injustice.   In effect, they helped change the government, making it an agent of public welfare and social justice.  Please use the following resources to augment your understanding of the topics discussed on the syllabus.


 Assignments: Please, complete the following online quiz and email the results by Sunday, 2/20/2011, 11:59 pm.


Please comment on the following video:



Based on the clip from the documentary, how was envrionmental conservation an extension of the progressive movement?

21 comments:

Brandt Schneider said...

Not really about progressivism but I always find it neat that Roosevelt traveled so much. It was not easy to travel back then but he seems to have been everywhere.

He seems to have made it a point to see new things, new people, and new lands.

We should travel more.

C said...

It's amazing what being "Old Money" and having the right connections allows. The man WAS everywhere... Harvard, working as a cattle rustler in the Dakota Territory, Asst. Sec. of the Navy, fighting in Cuba, Governor of NY, VP, President, at Yosemite or the Grand Canyon, on safari in Africa...back to run again in 1912. He did a lot...

Unknown said...

I think it was really amazng the way Roosevelt ditched his political entourage to stay in nature just a while longer with Muir. He was even glad it had snowed his last night in the wilderness.
Perhaps because of his previous experiences as a rough rider and such, he was would be one of the first presidents to remember nature and to preserve it.

Anonymous said...

Okay. Well. I just typed this beautiful response and it was completely ruined due to Firefox not liking this blog publishing thing. I sent it 4 times and each time it got an error. Let's see how this goes again with Internet Explorer. Hopefully I remember it all.

Roosevelt was extremely excited to be going on this nature experience, and dropping all of his political interests for the time. He even got a new suit for such an occasion! In Yosemite, with the huge sequoia trees, he realized something. One night when there was a huge meeting going on back at the hotel he just stayed with the man who thought the trees were sacred, Muir or something. During this time, Roosevelt was questioned as to when he would stop all the animal killing. This made Roosevelt realize just what he was doing to nature. He wanted to preserve Yosemite as a national park, which was a large extension of progressive movement. The progressive movement deals with changes and reforming for the sake of society, and with the big business and industries that rose, preserving the environment is a huge step for the progressive movement. -Mike Espinell

mrowl12345 said...

Based on what was seen in the clip the environmental conservation was a great extension of progressivism. For one thing, progressivism was a time of great change and reform, and until this point in history, most Americans had shown little or no respect for nature, and never even considered things such as conservation, for example, the way Americans acted on the great plains with the buffalo. Another aspect shown in the clip was that the conservationist Bure (im pretty sure thats his name, they didn't really say) was the one who was working to convince the president of conservation awareness. The progressivist era was control manly by the middle class, or in other words, normal people working to make a change. Therefore by a normal man convincing the president of the change that need to take place reflects the progressivist movement.

Unknown said...

Progressivism, or reform and rebuilding, was reintroduced to America along with the 20th century. Conservation was one important step in this reform and extended the movement greatly, for natural resources and how to save them were a main focus. Solving the waste of important resources was enhanced with conservation. As the textbook says, "Wasteful Americans, assuming that their natural resources were inexhaustible, had looted and polluted their incomparable domain with unparalleled speed and greed," this was an issue that certainly needed to be taken care of with conservation. The creation of Yosemite National Park did just that in preserving some of America's environment. It's admirable that Roosevelt cared so much about the great outdoors, taking time to understand how sacred nature was, and accepting a simple and calm night rather than a big, grand dinner. All that seemed to matter to him was what was being done and potential future effects, and not politics. The decision that change needed to be made was helped by these movements in conservation.
-Jenna Ryan

Sarah said...

I agree with Jessica that it is amazing for Roosevelt to have abandoned his political people to camp with Muir. I like that about him because he was one of those presidents who balanced a normal life along with his supreme position as president. I thought of the picture in the book alot and it can be seen at 5:00 during this video because that is all I remember of Muir.
Environmental conservation furthered the Progressive moment as it sparked a change in policies of the Americans. Like other progressive movements paving the way in industries and cities, steps taking in preserving the environment became part of this movement because it helped transition the way of thinking in people. Muir pointing out Teddy's fanatical hunting parallels with environmental conservation pointing out American's destructive attitudes toward nature. This movement of preserving land and its natural resources is progressive as it helped Americans stop wasting the land and preserve the West's natural beauty. The Game

Unknown said...

I love the woolen suit part (John must have felt special) and how this video brings in a bunch of different aspects of our learning. (buffalo solider, important people, environmental conservation, etc.) It seems to me that Muir and Roosevelt had a very close relationship (judging by the whole "Roosevelt would have never taken that [statement] from any other human"-3:59
I agree with Jess that Roosevelt did an amazing thing by spending time in nature. I've gained greater respect knowing fact that he sees importance in our environment.

Unknown said...

Based on Roosevelt's progressive era, environmental conservation significantly relates to the extension of reform and change. Before the time of the progressive movement, many natural resources such as forests and lakes were being destroyed and no one payed attention to these areas. It was interesting to see that President Roosevelt stood apart from all the other presidents in a way that he did not ignore environmental issues like the previous presidents have done. I feel that if it was not for Roosevelt, national parks would not exist at that time and people would not be aware of how much trees they were killing. I agree with Jess on how it was amazing to find out Roosevelt left politics behind to be in nature. This showed Roosevelt's dedication to conservation and extend his progressive era.

Unknown said...

Environmental conservation was an extension of the progressive movement because Roosevelt wanted wise use for the land. Under his administration he set millions of acres of land aside for national parks. He wanted people to appreciate mother nature, because at the time mostly everyone payed little to no attention to nature. This was a change that took place during the progressive era to make this country a better place for the people living in the present and in the future.

When Will We Understand said...

Environmental conservation was an extension of the progressivism movement in that Roosevelt made the people more aware of the nature. Roosevelt did so because he was a man of the nature, he embraced nature and wanted others to embrace nature. He did not want the people to take what they had for granted. By Roosevelt showing the people of what was out there in America, it would change the way people took care of the land and how they lived with it. Roosevelt, i feel, was the best president due to his great ideals for America and what he did for the poepl during his presidency.

Unknown said...

I think environmental conservation was an extension of progressivism because a lot of the progressive movement seemed to be for improving the country and also bringing it back to the "good old days" at the same time. What I mean is that with all of the trust busting and consumer control it seemed like the progressives were trying to get back to the times before big business, and setting aside national parks is part of that. I was surprised about the good time Roosevelt and Muir had because their conversations didn't make Roosevelt seem as egotistical; he was one with the environment. I liked how mrowl12345 (sorry I don't know who it is)mentioned the buffalo because it does a great job showing American's changing views about environmental protection.

Unknown said...

Environnmental conservation was an extension of the progressive movement because Roosevelt was trying to preserve America's natural resources in every way possible. In this video it shows how he experienced nature first hand by camping underneath the big sequoia trees and realizing their importance. I really like Krista's point of view when she said that Roosevelt was trying to bring America back to the good old days. I think he was trying to do that because America was growing and industrializing so fast, and with that a lot of problems were emerging, so by going back to the old days it brought a sense of peacefulness.

C said...

Jenna brings up an interesting quote from the book. "Wasteful Americans, assuming that their natural resources were inexhaustible, had looted and polluted their incomparable domain with unparalleled speed and greed..." How are we doing with this now? We're heavily reliant on oil, and we're (too often) against alternative fuel for various reasons (for instance cost or the ruining of precious views, how it may impact the environment in a different way). Conservation wasn't preservation; alternatively it attempted to save the environment in an eco-friendly way. Today, how are we doing? Have we gone too far? Have we come far enough?

Unknown said...

Environmental conservation was an extension of the progressive movement because in this movement, there were many reforms in order to fix problems in the country. There were political and economic reforms during this movement and thanks to Roosevelt there were even environmental reforms. Therefore environmental conservation was an extension of the progressive movement because Roosevelt changed the original treatment of environment. He created national parks that preserved the land and animals, instead of destroying it.

Anonymous said...

I think environmental conservation was an extension of progressivism because it was a way to improve America. Since the frontier had run out of room, the Roosevelt knew it was time to start setting aside land for parks and forests. With Muir's help, Roosevelt was able to set aside 200 million acres for national forests and parks. Because of this, Roosevelt was able to ensure that the U.S. would not run out of natural resources, and would not destroy precious land and animals. In this way, Roosevelt was able to use environmental reforms to improve America.

mike51095 said...

The Progressive Movement was all about improving the country by reforming various aspects of it. One of these aspects happens to be environmental conservation. The reason it could be considered part of the progressive movement is because it improved the well-being of the forests by making land reservations where they couldn't be developed. The forests are technically part of the country and they were being improved so therefore, environmental conservation is an extension of progressivism. I also just wanted to say that it is mind boggling how big the grizzly giant sequoia tree is. The diameter of its base looks like it could be the same diameter as the classroom! -Mike Signore

Unknown said...

Environmental conservation was an extension of the progressive movement because since the progressives were against all sorts of evils of society, they were bound to reach the issue of the ongoing destruction of their country’s lands. (Aw man, Jenna stole the quote I was going to use xD) So therefore I agree with her on the fact that the “wasteful Americans” needed to start waking up and realizing that their resources will not last forever. A progressive movement was the perfect time to address this topic of concern, since it was when most of the large problems in their country started being taken care of, like the lack of care in meat production. Since Roosevelt was the original trust-buster, and therefore on the progressives’ side (at least for that subject), it was not a surprise that he also was so fond of and cared about the great outdoors. The fact that he spent time “alone with the trees, and the man who considered them sacred”(2:45) showed just how much Roosevelt did in his time as president; he was much more than a simple political man like most others. Environmental conservation was just a branch of progressivism because the issues that the progressives wanted to fix all had a common theme; bettering America.

Unknown said...

Conservationism is an extension of progressivism because Roosevelt was trying to conserve natural resources in order to move the country forward. He was already trying to go "green" and he didn't even know it. By camping with the trees he was literally getting back to hs roots. Like Krista said he was trying to get back to the god old days, but bring it with him to the modern industrial nation which moved so quickly nature may have taken a back seat despite the need for natural resurces for the mass production of products.

Unknown said...

Like Jeanette said, progressives were against evils of society and they wanted to save the forests as not to deplete all of the natural world. Just like what our DBQ packet had said, future generations would not be able to have these natural resources if people hadn't taken measures to save them. I thought it was great how Roosevelt didn't even sleep in a tent. He simply slept with a blanket in the woods. He didn't need any luxuries. He simply enjoyed the natural world

Christine said...

Like Mr. Pags, I find it interesting that the idea of conservation started such a long time ago, and yet we're wasting natural resources more than ever.
I also agree with Jessica, Roosevelt's attention to the environment was amazing. The conservation efforts were another support for the progressive movement because, as others have said, it's another way to improve the nation. This was a newer direction, since it was focused on our natural resources.