Tells how investigative reporting began with the muckrakers in the early 20th century.

This edition of Louis Filler's classic account carries the muckraking tradition through World War II, McCarthyism, the civil rights movement, Korea, Vietnam, Ralph Nader, and Watergate.

McClure's was the leading muckraking journal among the many which flourished at the turn of the century. Both a literary and political magazine, It introduced exciting new writers to the American scene (Rudyard Kipling, Robert Louis Stevenson, A. Conan Doyle) and fearlessly championed the important causes of the day (from betterment of conditions in the coal mines to antitrust measures). This is the story of McClure's lifespan, beginning in Ohio when Samuel McClure gathered around himself a talented group of editors and writers (among them Willa Cather. Frank Norris. Stephen Crane, O. Henry. Hamlin Garland) and continuing to the magazine's last days in New York City. The growing concern of the staff about American urban and commercial life led to such exposes as Ida Tarbell's History of Standard Oil and Lincoln Steffens' Shame of the Cities. McClure's was a channel for those determined to combat the ills of society, and one of the first voices of the emerging Progressive Party. Originally published in 1970. The Princeton Legacy Library uses the latest print-on-demand technology to again make available previously out-of-print books from the distinguished backlist of Princeton University Press. These editions preserve the original texts of these important books while presenting them in durable paperback and hardcover editions. The goal of the Princeton Legacy Library is to vastly increase access to the rich scholarly heritage found in the thousands of books published by Princeton University Press since its founding in 1905.

Learn about the journalists who helped change America.

Professor Edd Applegate profiles the men and women who either wrote muckraking journalism or edited publications that featured muckraking articles. Some of the most important figures of journalism are here, including Nellie Bly, Upton Sinclair, Lincoln Steffens, George Kennan, Jack London, Frank Norris, Rachel Carson, George Seldes, and I.F. Stone.

As the twentieth century opened, Americans were jolted out of their laissez-faire complacency by detailed exposures, in journalism and fiction, of the corruption underlying the country's greatest institutions. This rude awakening was the work of the muckrakers, as Theodore Roosevelt christened these press agents for reform. From 1902, when it latched onto such mass circulation magazines as Collier's and McClure's, until it merged into the Progressive movement in 1912, muckraking relentlessly pricked the nation's social conscience by exposing the abuses of industry and politics. Ranging in tone from the scholarly to the sensational, muckraking articles attacked food adulteration, unscrupulous insurance practices, fraudulent claims for patent medicines, and links between government and vice. When muckrakers raised their voices against child labor, graft, monopoly, unsafe mill conditions, and the white slave trade of poor immigrant girls, they found a receptive audience. "I aimed at the public's heart," wrote Upton Sinclair about The Jungle, "and by accident I hit it in the stomach." Gathering the most significant pieces published during the heyday of the muckraking movement, The Muckrakers brings vividly to life this unique era of exposure and self-examination. For each article, Arthur and Lila Weinberg provide concise commentary on the background of its subject and the specific and long-range repercussions of its publication. The volume features the work of both journalists and fiction writers, including Ida Tarbell, Lincoln Steffens, Upton Sinclair, Ray Stannard Baker, Samuel Hopkins Adams, Thomas W. Lawson, Charles Edward Russell, and Mark Sullivan. Eloquent and uncompromising, the muckrakers shocked America from a state of lethargy into Progressive reform. This generous volume vividly captures the urgency of their quest.

Printed together for the first time since their original publication in 1903, Ray Stannard Baker’s piece on the coal strike, "The Right to Work"; Lincoln Steffens’ exposé of political corruption, "The Shame of Minneapolis"; and Ida Tarbell’s story of corporate villainy, "The Oil War of 1872"; along with an editorial from S. S. McClure and the narrative of Ellen Fitzpatrick, invite students to explore and understand "muckraking."