Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire and the Development of Workplace Safety Standards

Prepare a multi-paragraph essay (including an introduction paragraph, body paragraphs, and a conclusion) with a minimum of 500 words. Create an essay that addresses information below and includes your reaction to the ideas presented. See further instructions below.

Use Times New Roman font, size 12, double-space the text of your essay, and use 1 inch margins on all sides. 

Follow English grammar standards and rules, using use college-level language. 

1)    Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire and the development of workplace safety standards.

1. Read about the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire on pages 609 - 611 of your textbook.
2. What happened on March 25, 1911? Give details.
3. How many died? Why and how did they die?
4. Who was help responsible? Anyone?
5. Do you think an argument can be made that “progress” was accomplished by exploiting the lower class? Explain.
6. Do you think this still happens today? If so, how? Why?
7. In your own words, define progress -social, economic, and political progress.
8. A "living wage" is a current, hot topic. In your opinion, what is a living wage?  What does that look like?
9. How does the Triangle Shirtwaist Fire continue to impact our lives today, every day? How do the legislations, passed after the tragedy, still affect your everyday life?
10. As of January, 2019, the average cost of rent for OKC is $906/month. Rent is generally 1/4 of your monthly take-home pay. So, you would need to make $3,624/month (if paying all bills by yourself) in order to afford the cost of living, i.e. food, clothing, shelter, etc. If you work 40 hours per week, that means you need to make $22.65/hr to meet your basic financial needs. Based on this calculation, do most people make a living wage?

OR

2) Who owns the past? Scrutinize the facts, persons, events, dates and significance of the Age of Empire: American Foreign Policy, 1890-1914.

1. Who was Frederick Jackson Turner?
2. Read about Frederick Jackson Turner’s, Frontier Thesis in Chapter 22 of your textbook.
3. What did he conclude about the frontier?
4. Explain why later historians have viewed Frederick Jackson Turner's Frontier Thesis as "deeply flawed."
5. What did Turner suggest as possible new frontiers?
6. How did Turner contribute to the conscious creation of an American empire?
7. How does the poster {Figure 22.1 on page 633 of your textbook) suggest an American appetite for expansion?

OR

3)    Progressivism

First read chapter 21 in U.S. History. Then carefully read and consider the following excerpt from W.E.B. Du Bois The Souls of Black Folk and answer the questions below it.

Easily the most striking thing in history of the American Negro since 1876 is the ascendancy of Mr. Booker T. Washington. … Mr. Washington represents in Negro thought the old attitude of adjustment and submission; but adjustment at such a peculiar time as to make his programme unique. This is an age of unusual economic development, and Mr. Washington’s programme naturally takes an economic cast, becoming a gospel of Work and Money to such an extent as apparently almost completely to overshadow the higher aims of life. Moreover, this is an age when the more advanced races are coming in closer contact with the less developed races, and the race-feeling is therefore intensified; and Mr. Washington’s programme practically accepts the alleged inferiority of the Negro races. Again, in our own land, the reaction from the sentiment of war time has given impetus to race-prejudice against Negroes, and Mr. Washington withdraws many of the high demands of Negroes as men and American citizens. In other periods of intensified prejudice all the Negro’s tendency to self-assertion has been called forth; at this period a policy of submission is advocated. In the history of nearly all other races and peoples the doctrine preached at such crises has been that manly self-respect is worth more than lands and houses, and that a people who voluntarily surrender such respect, or cease striving for it, are not worth civilizing.

In answer to this, it has been claimed that the Negro can survive only through submission. Mr. Washington distinctly asks that black people give up, at least for the present, three things, —

First, political power,

Second, insistence on civil rights,

      Third, higher education of Negro youth,–

and concentrate all of their energies on industrial education, the accumulation of wealth, and the conciliation of the South. This policy has been courageously and insistently advocated for over fifteen years, and has been triumphant for perhaps ten years. As a result of this tender of the palm-beach, what has been the return? In these years there have occurred:

1. The disfranchisement of the Negro
2. The legal creation of a distinct status of civil inferiority for the Negro.
3. The steady withdrawal of aid from institutions for the higher training of the Negro.

These movements are not, to be sure, direct results of Mr. Washington’s teachings; but his propaganda has, without a shadow of doubt, helped their speedier accomplishment. The question then comes: Is it possible, and probable, that nine millions of men can make effective progress in economic lines if they are deprived of political rights, made a servile caste, and allowed only the most meagre chance for developing their exceptional men? If history and reason give any distinct answer to these questions, it is an emphatic No. 

(Source: http://www.americanyawp.com/reader/20-the-progressive-era/booker-t-washington-w-e-b-dubois-on-black-progress-1895-1903/)

Questions to answer in your essay:

1)      What are DuBois’ criticisms of Booker T. Washington’s stance on progress for African Americans? Be specific about both the content of and logic behind DuBois critique.

2)      What is DuBois implying about the true and proper bases of progress for African Americans?

3)      Was DuBois’ position was realistic at the time (1903)? Why or why not?

4)      To what extent has DuBois’ vision of progress been realized in the past century? Explain.

Formatting Instructions

Include specific references (in-text citations) to the ALL of the sources provided and the information from the web link in your essay.

DO NOT copy and paste ANY of your essay from ANY print or Internet source.  This is academic plagiarism and will result in an automatic zero for the Exam.

Minimum of 3 credible, scholarly sources.

Please USE your textbook as a source.

DO Not use .com, .net. or .orgs

Do Not use Wikipedia

Do not use an encyclopedia as one of your major sources. These are compilations, not a scholarly source.

You can use .edu and .gov

I strongly encourage you to use EbscoHost.

Here’s the link:

EbscoHost

You must CITE all sources used within the text of your essay (using in-text citations) and provide a Works Cited Page of those sources; you may use whichever style you are most familiar: APA, MLA, Chicago. If you need assistance with this, please let me know.

You may also use our Communications Lab online services at https://www.occc.edu/writingcenter/echo.html

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