Progressive era HW

1. I would define progress as moving forward towards an achievement

2. 1890-1920 is known as the progressive era because people worked towards making American a better and safer place to live. Prohibition and women suffrage were two of the main points during the progressive era, being able to get women more rights such as voting was huge.(loc.gov)

3. Progressive reforms usually had the purpose of restoring democracy in one way or another.(Eleanor Roosevelt PBS)

4. Essential goals worth striving for- Strengthening the national government, remaking democracy
Good goals- extreme concentration of wealth among the elite
Not needed goals- Prohibition
(Britannica)

Predictions about the future

From the world's fair in 1900 some people according to this article (www.upworthy.com) that people's main use of transportation would be flying cars. Nikola Tesla also predicted in 1909 that people would carry around wireless devices a la smartphones. (businessinsider.com) Approximately 50 years ago BBC predicted that there would be world peace, as well that parents would be able to decide the gender of their children as well as how smart their children are. (scientificamerican.com)

Many of the wishes I looked at, not just the ones on this blog, are just wish lists about how people want the future to improve. The flying cars wish is a typical wish but highly impractical, as the dangers of flying are already great enough without having to worry about the average joe being able to fly.  Nikola Tesla was spot on with his devices and the BBC were sort of right with their predictions that it is possible to choose the gender of children, but very few people choose to. Many predictions about the future seem to be how the world will be a better place 10,20,30,40 years from now, many achievements the wishes focus on are leisure based.

Now for myself, in the future I see self driving cars completely taking over the car industry in 20-30 years. I think that holograms will become a much bigger thing than they already are, maybe even something like skype but with holograms. I believe that privacy as we know it will become a thing of the past whether it be through social media or another party spying on us. But more importantly I think that nothing will take a drastic turn for the worse assuming no major catastrophic events (Ex. WW3). And if there is another World War I can see it setting back the world in terms of technology for a very long time.

Urbanization and Boxing

     Urbanization and Industrialization lead to the growth of boxing from 1880 to 1915. Boxing became a big part of pop culture, brought in money and jobs to the cities, and brought people together for a common cause. From the origins of boxing as bare-knuckle brawling to even the large spectacle of western-style fighting that was seen with the likes of Cassius Clay, George Foreman, and Joe Frazier, none of it would be possible without urbanization.

Example of a early bare-knuckle boxer

          Unfortunately, urbanization also lead to the decline of boxing as a sport, and became more like entertainment. It lead to boxing promoters not wanting to make a fight between the two most deserving candidates. In a newspaper found on Chronicling America by the NYTribune, they had a headliner article dedicated to how boxing was not the same as it used to be, and that it was now only about money(something that is regarded as fact today with modern day boxing). The article goes on to talk about how a couple of late boxing promoters would be incredibly disappointed with how boxing turned out, as they should be. Corruption became a part of boxing as promoters wanted to make sure that their big draws basically remained big draws, so they “pushed” fighters to have an off night or not perform as well as they should do the promoter could ensure the money kept flowing in.  (PBS unforgivable Blackness) (BBC boxing history)
      However while boxing may have been slowly dying as a sport, it had only just started to take off as a more entertaining brand, now every boxer had agents upon agents negotiating the best deals with the boxing promoters and only getting marquee match ups. This in my opinion is one of the main contributors to boxing’s growth. Boxing began to take off as a spectator’s sport and gambling also became a big part centered around boxing. Boxing also affected urbanization because due to this gambling boxing began to typically set up shop in Reno, Nevada which would lead to Las Vegas becoming as big as it is today. With boxing and sports related to boxing such as MMA having entire arenas dedicated to their sport. (Chronicling America by the NYTribune) (

Stanley Ketchel article

Boxing was evolved due to urbanization enough, that it helped bring people together for one cause. The unjust murder of Stanley “The Michigan Assassin” Ketchel took up entire sports sections of newspapers. For example, four separate articles were written about him after his death in this newspaper Chronicling America the vinita daily chieftan Ketchel was an all-time great middleweight boxer that wasn’t even that popular for a boxer as he didn’t fight in the renowned heavyweight division, but this just goes to show how big boxing was in the early 1900’s.  Cities all over the United States were saddened by the loss of one of the premier athletes at that time.

Johnson vs Jeffries KO

While boxing could bring people together, this was not always a good thing. Boxing’s first “superfight” between heavyweight champion Jack Johnson and the challenger Jim Jeffries. Jack Johnson had just become the first African-American champion and let’s just say White America was not happy. Now Jeffries wasn’t a fan favorite because he was fighting in his hometown or because he had a charismatic personality, but largely because the fans thought he represented White America.(PBS) Jeffries had been retired for 6 years but due to the color of his skin, was announced the favorite with many casual fans expecting him to take the belt. When the fight began, the talent level became obvious with many eye witness accounts claiming Johnson was just toying with Jeffries until he decided to knock him out in the 13^th round.(Great White Hope; Not great, no Hope NY Times) While, Johnson may have been a pioneer for blacks across the country, the events that followed the fights were disastrous. As news flew across the USA due to industrialization, white citizens were angered by this starting race riots all over the USA. At least ten blacks died in New York with many being savagely beaten according to  Upi.com

Johnson vs Jeffries fight

Poster for Jeffries vs Johnson

          I would say that yes, boxing had some effect on urbanization and industrialization. But, overall boxing just leeched from the potential revenue that boxing brought with having all these people in one place.  

Sources used:
 Chronicling America/The Kendrick gazette
Source used to see how the Johnson vs Jeffries fight was reported around the country.

Upi.com race riots
This source was used to see the effect of boxing on urbanization and the fallout from Johnson vs Jeffries

BBC boxing history

This was used to get an overall history on boxing from 1880-1915

Great White Hope; Not great, no Hope NY Times

This was used to get a backstory on Johnson vs Jeffries and to see how the fight itself went

Chronicling America the NYTribune

I used this source to see how urbanization affected and changed boxing, by making boxing less honorable as a sport and changed to where its main goal was to entertain the fans.

Stanley Ketchel ESPN
I used this to see how Stanley Ketchel affected communities and saddened people around the United States and Stanley's legacy.
PBS unforgivable Blackness
I used this source to see how black fighters were affected by the influx of money due to urbanization