Read Chapter 18 The Progressive Era.
Explore the Muckrackers – reform minded journalists who exposed the economic, social and political problems of the era.
The term was coined by Theodore Roosevelt after those who raked the muck off the bottom of rivers exposing the smelly scum at the bottom (see cartoon above).
These included writers such as Upton Sinclair, Jacob Riis, Ida Tarbell, Ray Stannard Baker and Lincoln Steffens.
Read an except of The Jungle (Links to an external site.) by Upton Sinclair. This book caused Theodore Roosevelt to pass the Meat Inspection Act and the Pure Food and Drug Act. Winston Churchill called the novel, “the great beef stink in the nostrils of the world.”
Souces:
Who were the muckrakers?