History 4321/Children’s Studies 401

Muller v. Oregon, the Child Labor Amendment, and the Progressive Era

September 12, 2005

I. 19^th Century Issues

1. Antebellum Reform (Jacksonians and populism; Whigs and broadening political sphere; Republicans and federal government)

2. Common Elements (cult of constitutionalism; role of religion; respect for local customs; tensions within coalition)

3. Education (Mann, Whigs, and public education; Morrill Act, Civil War politics, and higher education)

II. Gilded Age (continued from last time)

1. Legacy of Civil War (Skocpol thesis; expansion of federal government; role of party politics; decline of idealism; changing American demographics; expansion compulsory public education; changing nature of American higher education)

2. Issues of the Day (civil service reform and government professionalism; tariff and question of governmental revenue; federalism and question of governmental power; Jim Crow and question of race)

III. Progressivism and American Youth

1. Defining Progressivism (historiographical debates; Rodgers thesis: anti-monopolism—limiting big business; social reform—uplifting American society at the grassroots; social cohesion—“Americanizing” immigrants)

2. Interpreting Muller (Lochner and the court system; limited scope of reform—Muller v. Oregon; role of labor, Brandeis Brief; main arguments on Court; short- and long-term effects)

3. Gender Issues and the Progressive Era (significance of class; Addams and Hull House, WCTU; suffrage and divisions—NAWSA vs. Alice Paul; Children’s Bureau; progressives and government bureaucracy)

4. Origins of Academic Freedom (progressivism and education—European intellectual influence, significance of ideas, desire for “apolitical,” technical solutions to political problems; Ross, Stanford, and issue of academic freedom in higher education; 1915 meeting and AAUP; Columbia and Harvard crises)