5. Progressive Era, WWI & the Great Depression 1900-1940

The Progressive Era (roughly 1890-1920) was a response to the Gilded Age's excesses. Reformers called 'muckrakers' -- journalists like Upton Sinclair (whose book The Jungle exposed meatpacking conditions) -- exposed corruption and inequality.

Progressive achievements included:

• 17th Amendment (1913) -- direct election of U.S. senators by voters (previously chosen by state legislatures).
• 18th Amendment (1919) -- Prohibition, banning alcohol (later repealed by the 21st).
• 19th Amendment (1920) -- women's right to vote, after decades of the suffrage movement led by figures like Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton.
• Antitrust laws broke up monopolies; food and drug laws protected consumers.

World War I (1914-1918) began in Europe. The U.S. stayed neutral until 1917, when German submarine attacks on American ships and the Zimmermann Telegram (Germany proposing a military alliance with Mexico against the U.S.) pushed Congress to declare war. American troops helped tip the balance; Germany surrendered in November 1918.

President Woodrow Wilson proposed the Fourteen Points for a just peace, including a League of Nations. The Treaty of Versailles (1919) harshly punished Germany, planting seeds for future conflict; the U.S. Senate refused to join the League.

The Roaring Twenties saw economic boom, cultural change, and new technology. The boom ended with the stock market crash of October 1929, triggering the Great Depression -- the worst economic collapse in U.S. history. Unemployment reached 25 %; banks failed; families lost homes. President Franklin D. Roosevelt (FDR) responded with the New Deal -- a series of programs and reforms that put people back to work, regulated banks, and created a social safety net (including Social Security, 1935).

⚠️ Common misconception: the New Deal did not fully end the Great Depression -- World War II spending ultimately ended mass unemployment. The New Deal's lasting legacy was its regulatory and social-insurance programs.

💡 Tip: for the GED®, connect each amendment to its specific right -- 17th = direct Senate elections, 19th = women's vote. And remember the Depression sequence: crash (1929) -> Depression -> New Deal.