Progressive Era Dbq

The Progressive Era was a period of social and political reform beginning in the post Gilded Age 19th century and lasting through WWI. Industrial and urban growth of early 19th century America while representative of opportunity and future advancement simultaneously posed many difficulties for working class citizens. Prior concerns over the conditions of working class citizens were multiplied and magnified by overpopulated and impoverished urban communities. During this era many new Progressive agendas were introduced with the goal of reforming dated and unregulated policies, the most prominent of these, the birth control movement. The documents from chapter six of Constructing the American Past show that at its core, the birth control

Dowling’s pamphlet Race Suicide, presents a racially/politically charged, analysis of the birth control debate as a socio-religious dilemma. Race Suicide reflected the disillusionment of the general public towards the greed and decadence of the wealthy upper-class saying “the designs of God are frustrated by the prosperous classes; and that a period of moral decay has begun” (6, 1,127) Dowling quotes scripture throughout the essay and refutes claims that earth’s production cannot maintain annual population increase. “True progress” as he explains it, is maintaining “Christian principles” of “duty and sacrifice,” “increase and multiply” (6, 2, 127). On the surface the document goes a long way in that it expresses radical religious contemplations in a “Progressive” manner, by using cool reasoning. However, on closer inspection the document uncovers the fear and paranoia of “race suicide,” “code words meaning that the white race—and therefore civilization itself—was in jeopardy” (Gorn, 125). His arguments though sanctimonious were likely very compelling to devout Christians and racists at the time but use no evidence to make it a reliable source. Had he not been a racist and analyzed more thoroughly the “unjust laws” and “misgovernment” he claimed were the cause of poverty as opposed to “the number of mouths beyond the power of the accompanying hands to fill them”(6, 6, 126) he would have made a more reasonable

Dr. Aletta Jacobs was the only physician to explicitly support the use of birth control by women based on personal choice not simply medical need like Dr. John Williams. Dr. R.C. Brannon and Dr. Howard A. Kelly both felt the only legitimate way to prevent pregnancy was abstinence, reasons for this argument ranged from an inherent moral obligation to maintaining mental health. The Harpers Weekly interviews show how multifaceted the issue of birth control was, how it offended people on a moral and social level. It would have been more beneficial had the document been more ethnically diverse with more women weighing in. The fact that the only physician to support contraceptives was a woman speaks volumes about the disconnect between the male and female perspective on the issue. It begs the question: Can a man objectively weigh in on this issue? Since inarguably both the physical sacrifice and emotional burden of carrying to term and caring for an unwanted child lay solely on the