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Social Progressivism 1890-1920 · Saberian History Lectures

0:00
Okay, so kind of an awkwardness that I wanted
0:05
to address going forward. In the book itself,
0:09
when they divide the units, they actually do
0:11
like unit 1 of 1302, which of course in the text
0:15
is unit 5. It goes from like 16 to 20. But mainly
0:21
as an attempt to make the units more equivalently
0:25
sized, I decided to break 20 into the next unit.
0:31
And so one of the things that we're going to
0:33
do is we're going to kind of pay for the same
0:35
real estate twice. So chapter 19 is America's
0:39
foreign policy in the period of 1890 through
0:43
leading up to World War I. And then chapter 20
0:48
is American social policy in the period of 1890
0:52
leading into 1920. So a couple of sort of background
0:56
things. By the way, these are two things that
0:59
you are going to have cards about. So 1898 is
1:03
your Spanish -American War. is the re -election
1:18
of McKinley. And who was McKinley's running mate?
1:29
Teddy Roosevelt. So I'm going to put Teddy Roosevelt
1:34
down here in the timeline. Okay. 1901, Roosevelt
1:41
becomes president. after the assassination of
1:46
McKinley. So, Roosevelt is president. Roosevelt,
1:55
president by succession. His first term, 1904,
2:00
Roosevelt is re -elected. 1908 is the end of
2:18
Roosevelt's second term. Roosevelt had a first
2:25
term by virtue of succession. He served three
2:28
years of what would have been McKinley's second
2:31
term. But if I look at it from 1901 to 1908,
2:36
he's had seven years. He really has had two terms.
2:38
So Roosevelt thinks, okay, I've had my two terms.
2:42
He is wildly popular. And so rather than running
2:47
for a third term, what he does is he backs his
2:50
vice president. to basically be, shall we say,
2:55
fictive third term. So sometimes we would say,
2:58
when the sitting vice president gets elected
3:01
as president, we call it the previous president's
3:04
third term. People had said that if Hillary Clinton
3:07
had become president, she would have been, in
3:10
many ways, Barack Obama's third term. Do you
3:13
get the idea? In the case of George Bush the
3:20
Elder, George Bush the Elder was the sitting
3:22
vice president when Ronald Reagan was president.
3:25
Many people view Bush the Elder as Ronald Reagan's
3:28
third term. Yes, ma 'am. If what happened with
3:32
Roosevelt had happened now, would he say he did
3:37
run for re -election? Would he be permitted to?
3:40
Yes. The way it works is... you can be elected
3:45
to two terms but can serve no longer than 10
3:47
years. So in the case of Roosevelt having become
3:52
president by succession so early in the term,
3:58
He would not have been permitted to run for re
4:01
-election in light of the current restriction
4:04
that was constitutional amendment put in after
4:06
FDR had been elected for the presidency four
4:10
times. And I will get to that when we get to
4:13
the Great Depression. However, in the case of
4:18
Lyndon Baines Johnson, who was president by succession
4:22
when John Kennedy was assassinated in 1963, okay,
4:26
the presidential term is 60 to 64. Johnson is
4:30
elected in 60, or succeeds Kennedy in 63. wins
4:37
the election in 64, chooses not to run in 68,
4:41
he would have been able to because that would
4:44
have only been really nine months in office,
4:47
or not nine months, nine years in office, not
4:49
ten. You get the idea? A good question, though.
4:53
So, 1908, Taft is elected. Taft was the chosen
5:00
successor by Teddy Roosevelt. Okay? I'm giving
5:06
you these chronologies and then I'm going to
5:08
fill in the detail. Now, 1912, Taft and Roosevelt
5:14
have a falling out. Now, keep in mind, McKinley
5:21
was a Republican. Teddy Roosevelt was a Republican.
5:26
Taft was a Republican. Taft and Roosevelt have
5:33
a falling out. over just what the Republican
5:36
Party is going to look like. Roosevelt runs for
5:40
the presidency in 1912. Taft also runs for the
5:45
presidency. And so this splits the Republican
5:48
coalition, leading to the election of the first
5:51
Democratic president since Grover Cleveland,
5:54
which is Woodrow Wilson. Okay. Woodrow Wilson
6:05
is elected president in 1912. 1914 to 19... 1914,
6:16
World War I breaks out in Europe. So far so good.
6:26
Now, World War I breaks out in Europe. The United
6:29
States doesn't enter World War I until 1917.
6:33
Okay? So, 1914, World War I breaks out in Europe.
6:38
1916, Wilson is re -elected on a platform of
6:43
keeping the United States out of the war. And
6:47
in 1917, the United States declares war on Germany.
6:51
Campaign promises. Anyway, U .S. enters World
7:00
War I. In 1917. World War I ends in 1918. That's
7:09
when the armistice is signed. So these are some
7:21
background events to this period of 1897. to
7:29
1920. These background events in foreign policy
7:33
and electoral policy will play a role in this
7:37
progressive era. So, we're going to start by
7:43
talking about the varied motives of progressive
7:46
reformers. Now, one of the things I've often
7:48
said, and we're kind of at a disadvantage due
7:52
to our modern times. Progressivism is, whenever
8:03
I use it, and I'm very careful about it, we really
8:06
shouldn't think of this as a singular progressive
8:08
movement. You have a period of a number of reforms
8:13
that come down really from the 1890s through
8:18
the 1920s, and they're varied in their motivation.
8:24
I don't like to think of it as a single movement
8:27
because it's not. It's a series of different
8:29
movements. Now, some of these we've talked about
8:32
before. When I talk about the key policy objectives
8:35
of the progressive movement, one of them we've
8:41
talked about before, and that is temperance.
8:46
What is temperance? What was temperance in regard
8:50
to? Alcohol consumption. Now, they use the term
8:55
temperance very conscientiously. Progressives
8:59
have a nasty habit of manipulating language,
9:02
words, to alter the subconsciousness. What does
9:08
temperance imply? Cutting back, yes? Tempering
9:14
your consumption of alcohol. Now, think about
9:18
this for a moment. When we talk about alcohol
9:22
consumption for a moment, how many of you have
9:25
parents, you know they drink? I mean, they drink,
9:27
yes? And it happens. Now, temperance implies,
9:34
oh, we're just going to have a few, we're not
9:36
going to get mad, rip -roaring drunk that we
9:38
can't even read the newspaper anymore, right?
9:43
That's a nice selling point. What were they really
9:46
taught? talking about? No alcohol. That's prohibition.
9:53
Why didn't they call it a prohibition movement?
9:55
Because if you started talking about a prohibition
9:57
movement, people would say, get out of here.
10:02
Chains that bind are never thrust on you all
10:06
at once. Chains that bind are forged upon you
10:10
link by link. Okay. What's next? Well, besides
10:20
that, you had women's suffrage. What is women's
10:29
suffrage in modern language? Voting rights. Now,
10:33
most of you don't think of voting as suffering
10:36
until you saw the ballot this last election,
10:39
yes? Too soon? I did actually run into one of
10:45
my seniors who was like, I'm so excited I get
10:47
to vote in this election, Mr. Siberian. Yes,
10:49
now you know why we call it the suffrage. Come
10:51
suffer with me. So that's two policy objectives.
10:56
Had we seen these policy objectives before? Yes,
11:00
before the Civil War. These ideas had gotten
11:05
started there, had not yet come to fruition.
11:07
Now, one of the policy objectives that had occurred
11:09
over the course of the Civil War was abolition,
11:11
yes? And then the third tier I would probably
11:16
talk about would be addressing government corruption
11:21
and government efficiency. We'll just call it
11:23
government efficiency. And so, progressivism
11:30
in many ways... And again, I know people who
11:34
style themselves as progressive style them on
11:36
this idea that humanity is evolving, getting
11:40
better to make a better, more inclusive world.
11:42
That's, for lack of a better word, it sounds
11:46
good, doesn't it? Evolution has its costs. Evolution
11:50
requires a selection event. Anytime somebody
11:53
talks about we as a species need to evolve, you
11:56
might want to run. But you have this idea of
12:01
progressivism in many ways is a reaction to the
12:05
abrupt and decisive change in America by virtue
12:09
of industrialization. You have an expansion of
12:12
government control in order to mitigate those
12:15
changes through the use of social science efficiency.
12:18
And there is an element of elitism. Who says
12:22
that this is the best way? I mean, it takes a
12:25
little bit of elitism to say we need to do it
12:27
this way. It takes a little bit of elitism to
12:29
say, oh, you drunken immigrants, you need to
12:31
cut back. And by the way, is that liberty? Is
12:43
it liberty for the state to say to such a man,
12:46
man, you should not drink at this time? No. And
12:55
yet, Are we free? Alright, so, a couple of things
13:03
happen. One, you've got an economic depression
13:06
in the 1890s. Depression and starvation do help
13:13
people put on the chains. Slim wrists fit through
13:19
the chains, don't they? You had about 25 % unemployment.
13:27
Now, that's in a country where, by the way, did
13:29
women frequently work outside the home? No. And
13:32
if you're talking 25 % unemployment in the world
13:35
before the modern social welfare state, if you
13:37
didn't work, you didn't eat. So, you have a push
13:44
towards honest government. And you also had contained
13:47
in that activism and socialism. Now I'm going
13:50
to talk about socialism and American social reform
13:53
in a little bit. So a couple of things going
13:57
on. I'm going to get to the mugwumps in a sec.
13:58
But first I'm going to talk about American social
14:03
reform and socialism. Socialism, I would say
14:24
in many ways is a foreign philosophy. It's coming
14:28
out of Europe. It's coming out of, well, you've
14:32
got Marx coming out of Germany. Well, he's writing
14:34
in London, but he's coming from Germany. Now,
14:38
you also have the American social reform idea.
14:46
Now, a couple of things kind of different about
14:49
the two. First of all, with socialism itself,
14:52
you typically have the government controlling
14:56
the means of production and collection. So you
15:00
have the government as collector and distributor
15:04
of property. And as distributor. Now... Something
15:15
I want you to think about, and this might actually
15:18
offend people's sensibilities. Does Christianity
15:23
have socialist tendencies? I mean, you have that
15:33
which you've done to the least of us you have
15:35
done to me. You have concern for the poor. You
15:38
have notions of charity. You have acts of charity
15:42
as seen as a type of piety. Yes? And so, what
15:46
I've often said is that socialism appropriated
15:50
the socialistic tendency of Christianity. However,
15:53
in Christianity, who does the giving? You know,
16:04
you give money to the poor, you give things to
16:06
the poor as an act of what? What do we call that?
16:09
Charity. And you do it of your own free will
16:13
as a glorification of God, as an expression of
16:16
gratitude, yes? And so, you have what I call
16:20
a system of... And typically, what's the instrument
16:23
of giving out charity to the less fortunate?
16:28
The church itself, yes? How many of you have
16:31
participated in any type of charity work for
16:34
your church? Right? They organized it, they got
16:37
your butts over there, people's contributions
16:39
helped fund it, you did good work, and then it
16:42
was done. Yes? Okay. And so, one of the things
16:45
you have is what you call free will charity.
16:48
Now, the thing about free will charity is free
16:50
will charity works when people have money to
16:52
what? To give. Right? Is that necessarily happening
16:57
in a country where you have a 25 % unemployment
16:59
rate? No. And so you have people who are perceiving
17:04
that the old system of free will charity is inadequate
17:07
to deal with the massive amount of human poverty
17:11
in the cities. And so they turn their attention
17:14
to government. You see how that works. But...
17:26
When the government takes your money in the form
17:28
of taxes, where is the charity? Charity implies
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a certain level of volition, doesn't it? It implies
17:36
you want to do something, yes? Now here's the
17:39
other thing about charity, and for those of you
17:41
who are in my psychology class, we've talked
17:43
about this before. We are charitable for other
17:48
human beings, but we're also charitable for ourselves.
17:52
You feel good when you do something good for
17:55
people, don't you? Think about it this way. You
18:01
know, you're walking through the mall, you see
18:03
the dude with the red can ringing the bell for
18:05
the Salvation Army, you throw a few bucks in
18:07
and you feel good about it. Are you really doing
18:10
it for the other person or are you really doing
18:13
it for you? Could it be that our charity is the
18:18
most selfish thing we ever do? Alright. So, that's
18:26
sort of the difference. And the driver towards
18:28
socialism, and there were plenty of Christian
18:30
socialists in the world, is that the church apparatus
18:35
seemed incapable of handling the scale of the
18:40
poverty. Does that make sense? Now, a couple
18:43
of things I'm going to get into before I get
18:45
to the next slide. Alright. Everybody good with
18:48
this? Yes? Okay. Leaving that up there. Okay,
18:52
so, and it kind of speaks to this. And I am going
18:59
to speak to the political for a moment. If I
19:06
look at this chronology, from 1896 to 1912, what
19:18
party controls the White House? Republicans.
19:22
What party controls the presidency? Or not the
19:26
presidency, the Congress. Republicans. The very
19:30
populous North has a Republican coalition of
19:34
Northern people of industry and Western farmers.
19:37
Yes? You're dealing with the United States pretty
19:40
much as a one -party government with the interruption
19:43
of Grover Cleveland from 1860 until really 1932.
19:51
With some interruptions of Woodrow Wilson and
19:54
the interruption of Grover Cleveland. For the
19:56
most part, this country is a one -party Republican
19:57
nation -state. How do you lose for winning? We
20:07
have, then as now, coalition parties. So, in
20:15
the Republican coalition... You had the mugwumps
20:24
who were the honest government people. You had
20:34
the stalwarts. They were the party loyalty people.
20:46
Do you think they got along? Probably not. They
20:54
did because they might have gotten along better
20:57
than, who did they not like? The Democrats. Well,
21:03
who are the Democrats? Well, the Democrats are
21:07
your southern agrarians. And they were typified
21:17
by William Jennings Bryan, who came off sounding
21:19
like a socialist loon. And so I might put up
21:24
with the party corruption of the stalwarts because
21:27
I really don't want William Jennings Bryan as
21:32
president. You get the idea? Now, the enemy of
21:41
my enemy is my friend. Have we seen this ourselves?
21:54
Libertarians are for the legalization of marijuana.
21:57
There are libertarians in the Texan Republican
21:59
Party. Are there Christian conservatives in the
22:03
Texan Republican Party who are not crazy about
22:05
the idea of legalizing marijuana? Yes. And they're
22:11
in the same party. Why are they in the same party?
22:13
Because they don't want to be with the Democrats
22:15
because some of the Democrats are proposing gun
22:17
control and nobody in Texas likes gun control.
22:20
Right? Okay, not nobody, but you get the idea.
22:24
It is because there is an outside factor that
22:26
unifies them both. Something that they are both
22:28
more afraid of. But there are times where the
22:31
push comes to shove and you have splits in the
22:35
faction. We're going to get into these deep -seated
22:37
splits in a bit. So, you have the mugwumps. They're
22:43
pushing for honest government. Now, getting into
22:45
a couple of things. Getting into a couple of
22:49
things is... Actually, yeah. Here we go. So,
22:55
here's McClure's magazine. So, one of the other
22:59
things that factors into it, and I kind of talked
23:02
to you about it earlier, was you have government
23:07
corruption being exposed by... Journalists. Investigatory
23:13
journalists. We called those muckrakers. And
23:16
part of the reason you have it is, yes, there
23:19
is that progressive impulse. We as the journalists
23:21
are trying to make people better. But what else
23:23
is great about scandals? Scandals sell, don't
23:27
they? Who's on the take? Who's sleeping with
23:31
who? Yes? Yes? The bathroom gossip strewn out
23:38
in print. Yes? So, I kind of talked about this
23:42
already in Evolution of Journalism. 18th to 19th
23:46
century, it goes from being partisan to being
23:49
investigatory. And so, you have writing on ratings,
23:54
writing on commercial journalism. So, here you
23:56
have muckraking journalism. Partially, they're
24:00
in it to expose corruption because they're trying
24:03
to do what's right. But part of it is... Scandal
24:05
cells. I mean, how many of you were glued to
24:10
the tube when they were wondering if Comey was
24:12
going to indict Hillary? Come on now. That was
24:16
the adventure of the summer and then it didn't
24:19
happen and it was like, you know, watching an
24:21
emotional roller coaster. Some people were like,
24:23
yay! Other people were letting out collective
24:25
sighs. And we were all aware of it because all
24:27
of our friends on Facebook were posting comments
24:29
about it. Yes? Alright. Okay, so some of the
24:37
famous muckraking journalism articles was McClure's,
24:40
Munsey's, and Cosmo. Cosmo used to do investigative
24:44
journalism. I know! Now, think about this for
24:50
a moment. Is Cosmo doing investigative journalism
24:54
now? No, I mean, now it's secrets to spice up
24:59
your love life. Okay. All right, you're actually
25:05
pulling up Cosmo. You have the app for that.
25:08
All right, I'm not going to do that in the demure
25:14
voice for that one. All right, that one, I mean,
25:16
because a couple of y 'all are about ready to
25:19
have an apoplexy here. So, Gospel, here's your
25:23
basic idea. And I say this, progressivism starts
25:27
out. In a way, and I say this, in a way it's
25:33
very American and in a way it's very not. So
25:38
here I think is the tension. The tension is this.
25:48
It is, are we going to be free or are we going
25:54
to be well? In a way, not, because fundamentally,
26:00
freedom is the freedom to make your bad choices
26:03
and to live with them. And so, think about this
26:08
for a moment. You go back for a moment, and you
26:11
have this idea of the social gospel, spreading
26:14
the word, bringing the kingdom of God to the
26:18
world. Whereas now, when we talk about the kingdom
26:23
of God coming, what are we thinking about? The
26:27
end. The end of history. Which, you know, I have
26:31
met a few historians who are apocalyptic Christians.
26:34
The rest of us like to be optimistic about the
26:35
job market. If history ends, there's no job,
26:39
right? Alright, so here's the idea. You have
26:43
these people. These are missionaries in the world.
26:47
Now, so think about this for a moment. I'm going
26:50
to do this as kind of a cross tab here. So here
26:52
we got social gospel. versus Social Darwin. Okay,
27:03
so, Social Darwin, poor people, why are they
27:08
poor? They're less evolved. They're stupid, right?
27:15
Okay, so the Social Darwin looks at poor people
27:17
as less evolved. Yes? Less evolved, less intelligent,
27:22
yada, yada, yada, right? And if you follow Darwinianism
27:31
to its logical conclusion, what happens to the
27:34
less evolved? They are selected out. Right? So
27:38
you have selection. Okay. Social gospel. God
27:48
must love poor people because he made so many
27:50
of them. Abraham Lincoln. Direct quote. So, you
27:57
encounter a poor person. What do you do? Well,
28:00
you provide aid. And so think about this for
28:03
a moment. Think about the immigrant communities
28:05
that are coming in. So, and we've kind of had
28:09
a shift in this, but think about this for a moment.
28:13
Poor people in the cities. Why are they poor?
28:19
Alright, think about this for a moment. What
28:21
are the common excuses we give when it comes
28:23
to dealing with homeless people? Drugs. Alcohol.
28:29
So we're thinking, oh, these people are in a
28:32
spot because they are alcoholics, illiterate.
28:42
One L or two? Two. Or was I right the first time?
28:49
This too? All right. Illiterate. There we go.
28:52
Illiterate, uneducated, which there are plenty
28:57
of uneducated people who can read. Now, how does
29:03
this fit? And maybe they live an ungodly life.
29:12
Now, think about this for a moment. If you're
29:14
an immigrant coming to Chicago, where might you
29:17
have come from? Italy, Greece, Russia. Or Czechoslovakia,
29:25
Poland. Okay. Are you, first of all, in those
29:29
countries, do they drink? Yes. In those countries,
29:35
especially if you're coming from an agricultural
29:36
community, might those people have been illiterate?
29:39
Yes. Even if they were literate, they sure as
29:42
crap weren't literate in what? English. So they've
29:46
got a language gap. So whether it's inability
29:48
to decode or inability to negotiate the language,
29:51
that immediately puts them at a disadvantage,
29:53
yes? And what religious denomination are these
29:56
people coming from? They might be Russian Jews,
29:58
they might be Catholic Poles, or they might be
30:00
Orthodox, or they might be Catholic Italians.
30:03
So these are not Protestant denominations. You
30:07
get the idea. So, if you're a Protestant missionary,
30:12
you're like, oh my God, we can totally save their
30:14
souls. We can totally get them out of alcoholism.
30:16
If we just turn them into what we want, they'll
30:22
be better. What's left out of the equation? What
30:30
they want. And so, land of the free and home
30:34
of the brave. Keep in mind, this was a country
30:37
that was founded on the religious freedom to
30:39
be a theocracy. Do you see that theocratic impulse,
30:45
that puritanical impulse reaching back 200 years
30:49
later? So you have this idea of trying to have
30:55
assimilation. And so they put out the bread.
31:04
So you have the Hull House in Chicago, led by
31:06
Jane Addams. This was an instrument of assimilating
31:09
the impoverished immigrant communities. And so
31:15
they provided a community center, they provided
31:18
nurseries so that the women could work, they
31:20
provided education and music, again, to try and
31:25
liven their souls. Now, some other things that
31:28
come out. Oh, we'll get to that in a moment.
31:32
You have the YMCA. Now, most of you remember
31:37
the song. Most of you do not know what the YMCA
31:42
used to be. Used to be a what? Well, it used
31:47
to be deeply religious and it still maintains
31:50
religious ethos. That's not the only thing. Okay,
31:52
how many of you have been to the YMCA? Okay.
31:56
How many of you have heard the song? It's fun
32:00
to stay at the YMCA. Originally, the YMCA was
32:06
not athletic facilities. It was a youth hostel.
32:12
Now, let me spell that out because y 'all are
32:14
thinking of the other type of hostel you know.
32:22
Hostel. Like hotel. Not to be confused with...
32:32
Hostile. Do not get... Okay, so this is why when
32:36
we speak English, the British pronunciation gets
32:40
it a lot better. Because, of course, in American
32:44
English, you've got hostile and hostile. Whereas
32:47
in English, you have hostile and hostile. You
32:51
see how the I is actually pronounced. Right?
32:56
All right. Now, that's if you're using the upper
33:00
class English. Now, if it's going to be a bit
33:03
cockney, that's when you don't really pronounce
33:05
things a bit accurately. You know, you hear a
33:07
lot more of that when you watch, you know, that
33:11
one movie with the wizard. What was his name?
33:13
Oh, Harry Potter, right? Where they don't enunciate
33:16
the syllables at all. Okay. Women voting. 1920
33:25
and we never look back. Either that or we keep
33:27
looking back. But anyway, no. Too soon? Alright.
33:31
The idea of women voting goes back to the 1840s.
33:39
1840s. Seneca Falls Convention. Women come together.
33:42
They start wanting the vote. Now, here is the
33:44
thing. They did not want the vote to overthrow
33:50
patriarchy. First of all, look at the women for
33:57
a moment. What do you notice? Here, let me turn
33:59
off the light. They're very well dressed. What
34:02
else do you notice? They're all white. They are
34:07
all white Anglo -Saxon Protestant women. You
34:10
do not see an immigrant woman there. You do not
34:12
see a black woman there. You do not see a Chicano
34:15
woman there. Not only is this because New York
34:18
at this time is not ethnically diverse and transportation
34:20
sucks at this time, it is that the women's suffrage
34:25
movement has as its origins, for lack of a better
34:31
word, female upper middle class elitism. Here's
34:34
what they're running into. The push for women's
34:39
suffrage is not just a matter of equality. It
34:42
is a matter of... Here you have women getting
34:45
educated in the middle class. We talked about
34:46
that already. But they couldn't vote. Who could
34:50
vote? Not just their males. What other men could
34:53
vote? All men. That would be the sons of freedmen.
34:58
That would be those illiterate, drunken immigrants.
35:03
Right. Well, more to the point, they're like,
35:06
wait, you're letting those stupid, drunken immigrants
35:09
and those illiterate, and they actually use the
35:11
N word, But not us. Not us who have gone to college.
35:16
Not us who bear the children and educate them.
35:19
And the other thing that you're running into
35:21
is that women were perceived as the more moral
35:26
sex. And so, part of their ethos, part of their
35:34
argument was... We women should have a say in
35:38
the state so we can be better wives, better mothers,
35:40
better Christians for a better society. Kind
35:47
of has an appeal to it, doesn't it? I say that
35:51
in a class that's majority female. Guys, I don't
35:55
know if you've noticed, they do outnumber us.
35:59
However, what is the first business of statecraft?
36:06
Is the first business of statecraft the care
36:10
and the subsistence and the sustenance of its
36:14
people? You forgot your sun tzu. What is the
36:22
first business of statecraft? Warfare and violence.
36:25
And so, one of the things that you get out of...
36:31
as a result of women's suffrage, although I'm
36:33
kind of getting ahead of myself, is the removal
36:36
of the warrior ethos from the state. The state
36:38
now becomes a lot more concerned about people's
36:40
physical condition and subsistence to the neglect
36:43
of force, enforcement, violence, things like
36:46
that. And so that's kind of fun, weird, and different.
36:48
So, a couple of things going on. Women start
36:51
pushing for the right to vote. Who decides who
36:55
votes in this country? Individually. So the first
37:01
state to extend voting rights to women was Wyoming.
37:06
Why? Not only that, keep going. In frontier society,
37:16
you need each other for subsistence, for survival.
37:22
As a matter of consequence, you have a greater
37:26
say in your household and a greater say in the
37:28
state. Whereas, do you really need an elite upper
37:35
middle class woman to stay at home and knit?
37:41
In other words, your large upper middle class
37:44
is an idle population. They're not a necessity.
37:46
You get what I'm saying? So, there are economic
37:48
factors. So, really, women's suffrage goes from
37:51
the West to the East. So, it goes from the West.
37:58
to the east. Now also, in the west, you have
38:02
as established a political culture. No, these
38:07
are relatively new states. And so part of it
38:09
is also that you have an increase, or you don't
38:15
have to fight an established political culture
38:17
because these states are relatively new. You
38:20
get what I'm saying? New York becomes the first
38:22
state to let women vote, but that's after, or
38:25
rather not the first state to let women vote,
38:27
the first state east of the Mississippi to let
38:30
women vote, and then the rest follow de facto.
38:32
Women finally get the right to vote in the 1920
38:35
election. That is when the constitutional amendment
38:40
passes. Make sense? Whereas previously, some
38:44
states women could vote, some states women didn't.
38:46
Make sense? Alright. That was the 19th Amendment.
38:51
So, easy way to remember it. 19th Amendment.
38:54
1919 is when ratification finishes up. Women
38:58
vote in the first election in 1920. Alright.
39:04
Judging by your attitudes that we're getting
39:07
on the end of the class period, we will talk
39:10
about the rest tomorrow. I will post the paper
39:13
tonight and I will have the copies this afternoon.