Organize the Evidence for Thinking through Sources 19

Document Links:

Document 19.1 FRANCES WILLARD, On Behalf of Home Protection (1884)

Document 19.2 Abstinence Poster (1919)

Document 19.3 Indiana Sterilization Law (1907)

Document 19.4 The Immigration Act of 1917

Document 19.5 Sanitary Precaution (c. 1914)

Organize the Evidence for Thinking through Sources 19

The following exercises provide an opportunity to use the sources collectively to respond to a guiding question.

Guiding Question: How did progressives’ white middle-class perspectives and moral values shape their understanding of social problems in the United States and influence the policies they proposed and implemented in an effort to reform and improve American society in the early twentieth century?

Instructions

Below are three topics that might find a place in organizing an essay responding to the guiding question. This exercise asks you to identify which sources would provide relevant evidence for that topic. Select the best answers for each question. Choose ALL that apply. Click the “submit” button for each question to turn in your work.

Question 19.16

1. Which of the sources provides specific evidence about progressives’ notions of acceptable roles for women? Choose ALL that apply.

R6Xlb9MAHXF7O4A0MNT1YQ== Document 19.1: Frances Willard, On Behalf of Home Protection
R6Xlb9MAHXF7O4A0MNT1YQ== Document 19.2: Abstinence Poster
kcVtUDKfaIWTKrqEI7di7A== Document 19.3: Indiana Sterilization Law
R6Xlb9MAHXF7O4A0MNT1YQ== Document 19.4: The Immigration Act of 1917
kcVtUDKfaIWTKrqEI7di7A== Document 19.5: Sanitary Precaution
Correct: Document 19.1: Willard’s descriptions of motherhood and the obligations of mothers serve as an illustration of progressives’ ideas about appropriate roles for women. Document 19.2: The poster describes the problems with “a girl who would yield,” implying that proper girls and women would be chaste until marriage. Document 19.4: The act lists the many reasons that women might be excluded from the United States, including prostitution, thereby implying that acceptable women maintain high morals and chaste behavior.
Incorrect: Document 19.3: The sterilization law does not specify acceptable norms for women’s behavior. Document 19.5: The image does not specifically address acceptable norms for women.

Question 19.17

2. Which of these documents provides specific evidence about which groups and behaviors progressives viewed as a threat to American society? Choose ALL that apply.

kcVtUDKfaIWTKrqEI7di7A== Document 19.1: Frances Willard, On Behalf of Home Protection
R6Xlb9MAHXF7O4A0MNT1YQ== Document 19.2: Abstinence Poster
R6Xlb9MAHXF7O4A0MNT1YQ== Document 19.3: Indiana Sterilization Law
R6Xlb9MAHXF7O4A0MNT1YQ== Document 19.4: The Immigration Act of 1917
R6Xlb9MAHXF7O4A0MNT1YQ== Document 19.5: Sanitary Precaution
Correct: Document 19.2: The poster indicates that most “wise guy[s]” and “girl[s] who would yield” are responsible for the spread of sexually transmitted infections and are, therefore, a threat to society. Document 19.3: The law specifies the dangers that “criminals, idiots, rapists, and imbeciles,” among other groups, pose to society. Document 19.4: The law demonstrates that its progressive creators viewed many groups as a threat, including poor people, people with diseases, and immoral people. Document 19.5: The image shows that its progressive creators viewed unsanitary people, particularly black servants, as a threat to white society.
Incorrect: Document 19.1: Willard describes the ways women benefit society, not people or groups who are a threat to society.

Question 19.18

3. Which of the following documents provides specific evidence about the strategies progressives pursued in their efforts to perfect American society? Choose ALL that apply.

R6Xlb9MAHXF7O4A0MNT1YQ== Document 19.1: Frances Willard, On Behalf of Home Protection
R6Xlb9MAHXF7O4A0MNT1YQ== Document 19.2: Abstinence Poster
R6Xlb9MAHXF7O4A0MNT1YQ== Document 19.3: Indiana Sterilization Law
R6Xlb9MAHXF7O4A0MNT1YQ== Document 19.4: The Immigration Act of 1917
R6Xlb9MAHXF7O4A0MNT1YQ== Document 19.5: Sanitary Precaution

Thinking through Sources forExploring American Histories, Volume 2Printed Page 152