Nassau Club in Princeton
Lower East Side Conservancy Book Talk
New York in the Progressive Era: Social Reforms and Cultural Upheaval 1890-1920
T
he years 1890-1920 produced sweeping reforms and profound change in American life and especially in New York State. Reacting to the great inequalities from the Gilded Age, reformers pressed for laws for better housing, women's suffrage, personal income tax, labor protections, and far more. The era saw innovative ways of combatting social issues like the Settlement House movement culminating in the University and Henry Street Settlements. An unlikely alliance of reformers and Protestant ministers also passed Prohibition laws. The book takes you on a journey of these social movements exposing their nuances and little-known dissenting voices.
The years 1890-1920 produced sweeping reforms and profound change in American life and especially in New York State. Reacting to the great inequalities from the Gilded Age, reformers pressed for laws for better housing, women's suffrage, personal income tax, labor protections, and far more. The era saw innovative ways of combatting social issues like the Settlement House movement culminating in the University and Henry Street Settlements. An unlikely alliance of reformers and Protestant ministers also passed Prohibition laws. The book takes you on a journey of these social movements exposing their nuances and little-known dissenting voices.
Learn about:
-Reformers attempts to improve housing and eradicate poverty
-Introduction of child labor laws
-Emerging middle class and leisure time
-Unique solutions like Settlement Houses
-Women’s suffrage and why some women opposed it
-Early Black civil rights efforts and internal disagreements on how to gain traction
-Unions and strikes for workers’ rights
-Introduction of personal income tax
-Anti-monopoly efforts and fighting rampant corruption
-Untold story of how Congress passed Prohibition
-Early environmental movement like in the Adirondacks
-The “Forgotten Pandemic” of 1918 &1919
-Why this era ended in the early 1920s
Over 40 historic photos and a 19th century poem bring this period alive.
