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1900-1909 |
Political and
Social History |
Literature |
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1900 |
12 April. Foraker Act confirms Puerto Rico as
an unconsolidated territory of the United States.
Democratic National Convention nominates
William Jennings Bryan for president; its platform condemns imperialism and
the Gold Standard Act.
 As
expected, the Republican National Convention in Philadelphia renominates
William McKinley for a second term as president. Despite his protests that
he does not want the office, Theodore Roosevelt attends the convention in
"Rough Rider" garb and accepts the nomination for vice-president.(Photo
courtesy of the
American Memory Home Page)
20 June. The revolt known to the West as the
Boxer Rebellion breaks out in China.
September. In the worst natural disaster to
date in U. S. history, a hurricane sweeps over Galveston, Texas, killing an
estimated 6,000-7,000 of its 36,000 inhabitants.
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Zitkala-Sa, Impressions of an Indian Childhood, The School Days of an
Indian Girl, and An Indian Teacher among Indians published in the
January, February, and March Atlantic Monthly.
Charles W. Chesnutt, The House Behind the Cedars
Mark Twain, "The Man that Corrupted Hadleyburg"
Theodore Roosevelt,
The Strenuous
Age
5 June.
Stephen Crane dies at Badenweiler, Germany
Theodore Dreiser, Sister Carrie
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1901 |
10 January. Spindletop claim in Texas brings
in oil, the first in that region.
4 March. McKinley is inaugurated for his
second term as president.
6 September. President McKinley shot by Leon
Czolgoz at the Pan-American Exhibition in Buffalo, N. Y. He dies of his
wounds on September 14 and Roosevelt is sworn in as president on the same
day. (See early movies of the opening of the Exhibition and
of McKinley's funeral at the
American Memory Home
Page.)
16 October. Roosevelt invites Booker T.
Washington to the White House.
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Charles W. Chesnutt, The Marrow of Tradition
Frank Norris, The Octopus
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1902 |
The United Mine Workers go on strike and the
owners refuse to recognize the union; as tensions mount and negotiations
fail, Roosevelt calls the two sides to the White House and successfully
handles the situation.
Newlands Reclamation Act authorizes the
building of irrigation dams across the West.
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Ida Tarbell's expose of the oil monopoly,
History of the Standard Oil Company, appears in McClure's Magazine.
Upton Sinclair, The Jungle
Jack London, The Iron Heel
Lincoln Steffens, The Shame of the Cities
Henry James, The Wings of the Dove
Ellen Glasgow, The Battle-Ground
Owen Wister, The Virginian
October.
Frank Norris dies of appendicitis.
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1903 |
Department of Commerce and Labor created by
Act of Congress; George B. Cortelyou is first secretary.
Commission to settle UMW dispute recommends
shorter hours and a wage increase for the miners.
 An
eleven-minute Edison film, The Great Train Robbery, is shown in
theaters. (Image courtesy of the
Edison Papers at Rutgers University.)
3 November After the Hay-Herran Treaty with
the Colombian government fails to resolve the issue of sovereignty over the
proposed Canal Zone, a bloodless uprising occurs and, on November 4,
Panamanian independence is declared. On 18 November, the Hay-Buneau-Varilla
treaty gives the U. S. permanent rights to a 10-mile-wide strip of land in
return for $10 million and annual payments.
17 December. Orville Wright flies 120 feet in
12 seconds in the first heavier-than-air machine.
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W. E. B. DuBois,
The
Souls of Black Folk
W.E. B. DuBois,"The
Talented Tenth"
Henry James, The Ambassadors
Jack London, The Call of the Wild
Mary Austin, The Land of Little Rain
Frank Norris, The Pit and The Responsibilities of the Novelist
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1904 |
The Socialist Party nominates Eugene V. Debs
for president. The Republicans nominate Roosevelt, who wins handily (by 2.5
million votes) over Democrat Alton B. Parker.
National Child Labor Committee formed.
Roosevelt Corollary extends the Monroe
Doctrine from the Western Hemisphere to global U. S. "spheres of
influence."
New York passes the first speed law for
automobiles: 10 mph in cities, 20 mph in the countryside.
Russo-Japanese War.
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Henry James, The Golden Bowl
Jack London, The Sea-Wolf
Robert Herrick,
The
Common Lot
Death of
Kate Chopin
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1905 |
5 September. Russo-Japanese War ends with
treaty signed at Portsmouth, N. H.
Industrial Workers of the World union
organized in Chicago.
In the April issue of the Ladies' Home
Journal, Grover Cleveland writes, "Sensible and responsible women do not
want to vote. The relative positions to be assumed by man and woman in the
working out of our civilization were assigned long ago by a higher
intelligence."
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William Dean Howells, "Editha"
Charles W. Chesnutt, The Colonel's Dream
Edith Wharton, The House of Mirth
Robert Herrick, The
Memoirs of an American Citizen
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1906 |
April. Roosevelt lambastes the press for its
lurid exposure of social evils, calling journalists such as Upton Sinclair,
Lincoln Steffens, Ida Tarbell, David Graham Phillips, and Ray Stannard Baker
"muckrakers" after the man in Bunyan's Pilgrim's Progress who could
see nothing but filth.
 18
April. San Francisco earthquake kills an estimated 500 people, and fire
destroys much of the city.
30 June. To correct the conditions detailed in
Sinclair's The Jungle, Congress passes the Meat Inspection Act and
the Pure Food and Drug Act.
Roosevelt journeys to Panama to visit the
Canal, begun this year.
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Death of
Paul
Laurence Dunbar (b. 1872)
Jack
London, White Fang
Mark
Twain, What is Man?
Upton Sinclair, The Jungle
Muckraking articles: Ray Stannard Baker,
The Railroads on Trial;
David Graham Phillips, The Treason of the Senate.
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1907 |
21 March. U. S. Marines are sent to help put
down a revolution in Honduras.
Panic of 1907. Financier J. P. Morgan manages
the crisis, importing $100 million in gold to bolster U. S. currency.
Immigration law excludes Japanese workers.
Frank Lloyd Wright completes the Robey House
near Chicago.
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Henry
James, The American Scene
1907-9, New York Edition of James's work
Henry Adams, The Education of Henry Adams
(privately printed)
Edith Wharton, The Fruit of the Tree
John T. McCutcheon,
Congressman Pumphrey, the People's Friend (popular political humor)
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1908 |
Choosing not to run again, Roosevelt picks
William Howard Taft as his successor for the nomination for the presidency.
The Democrats again nominate William Jennings Bryan, who loses to Taft.
 Robert
Henri, John Sloan, George Luks, William Glackens, Everett Shinn, and George
Bellows form the
"Ashcan School" of painters in Greenwich Village. Protesting the
National Academy's conservative tastes and exclusion of their work, these
artists hold their own successful exhibition at the Macbeth Gallery on
February 3, 1908; the next year they are offered their own gallery at the
National Academy's exhibition.
George Bellows's
Both Members of this Club (1909)
courtesy of
American Visions.
Henry Ford introduces the Model T. It sells
for about $850 and can, says Ford, be purchased in any color the buyer
wishes, as long as the buyer wants black. Colors were added the next year.
By 1926 the price drops to $310.
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Mary E. Wilkins Freeman, The Shoulders of Atlas
Jack London, The Iron Heel
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1909
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W. E. B. DuBois (1868-1963) founds the
National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP).
Bakelite, an early form of plastic, is
patented.
W. C. Handy writes "Memphis Blues," the first
blues to be written down.
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Gertrude Stein, Three Lives
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