The term "muckrakers" was given to writers who aimed to expose the government's and big businesses' corruption during the Progressive Era. They sought to reform the social ills that were the result of urbanization, and oftentimes were successful in influencing the passage of new legislation. Their name was popularized by Theodore Roosevelt, who gave a speech titled "The Man With the Muck-Rake" in 1906. He got the term from The Pilgrim's Progress by John Bunyan, a story that many Americans would have recognized at the time. Roosevelt believed that the muckrakers focused too much on the negative aspects of society, and failed to consider its positives. However, he still recognized their importance in exposing corrupt politicians and big businesses that plagued society. His speech was a call for more objective reporting. Some important muckrakers of the era were Ida Tarbell, Lincoln Steffens, and Upton Sinclair.
Ida Tarbell was an author and journalist best known for her collection of articles that was published in McClure's Magazine (known for beginning the tradition muckraking journalism), which led to the publication of her book The History of the Standard Oil Company in 1904. These works attacks John D. Rockefeller and his Standard Oil Company for being a greedy monopolist that practiced unfair and aggressive business techniques. The Supreme Court's decision regarding Standard Oil in 1911 can be attributed to Tarbell's work. The Court found Rockefeller's company to be in violation of the Sherman Antitrust Act, and broke it up into 34 separate companies. However, Rockefeller's holdings in all 34 companies remained highly profitable.
Lincoln Steffens was another muckraker journalists whose writing was published in McClure's Magazine and then published as a book in 1904. His work The Shame of the Cities showed how party bosses and business leaders were profiting from corrupt politics. It was a series of writings on corruption in St. Louis, Minneapolis, Pittsburg, Philadelphia, Chicago, and New York.
One of the most influential novels of the era was Upton Sinclair's The Jungle. Published in 1905, Sinclair hoped to expose the poor and gruesome conditions that workers of the meatpacking industry were subject to. However, many people became more concerned about meat contamination that the exploitation of such workers. The public was outraged by his descriptions of unsanitary slaughterhouse and the sale of rotten meat, and led to the passage of the Pure Food and Drug Act and the Meat Inspection Act of 1906. These acts gave the federal government the power to regulate food and drug industries.
Each of these muckrakers contributed to an era of change during the early 1900s that provided the basis for modern institutions.
This was a really well written post, I liked how you gave a brief overview of different muckrakers. I specifically became interested in Ida Tarbell and decided to look into her a little bit more. An interesting fact about Tarbell was that her father had owned a small oil producing company when she was younger and her business had done well for a while until an agreement between the railroads and refiners which was led by John D. Rockefeller cause business to drastically decline. This probably had some type of impact when it came to the publishing of The history of the standard oil company.
ReplyDeletehttps://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/features/rockefellers-tarbell/
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ReplyDeleteAfter doing a little more research of Lincoln Steffens, who as you mentioned was a famous muck-cracker during the time, I found that one of his earliest contributions and reasons for public recognition was lecturing upon the "dogmas that connected economic success with material wealth." Possibly influencing many famous works of literature questioning the American Dream's transformation during the time, Steffen greatly promoted individualism to his audiences against the economic progressions during the time. This term of muckraking, however, eventually died out as World War 1 broke out and the right to freedom of speech during times of war was put into question.
ReplyDeleteSources:
https://www.britannica.com/biography/Lincoln-Steffens