Lincoln Steffens

Lincoln was born in San Francisco, California on April 6, 1866. He was a U.S. journalist who worked as a  New York reporter for the New York City newspapers who launched a series of articles in McClure's that then got put together to later publish a book titled The Shame of the Cities. This exposed the corruption in politics and big business. He also wrote The Struggle for self Government and The Traitor State, in which criticized New Jersey for patronizing incorporation. When he left McClure's, he formed The American Magazine. In The Shame of the Cities, Steffens sought to bring about political reform in the urban parts of America by appealing to emotions of the Americans.

This is a cartoon referring to Lincoln and his reform on the common people.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2LHK_eXlLc0

This is a very well presented video on why someone would want to reform during that time period and focuses in on Steffens as an example to his reform.

Ray Stannard Baker

Ray was born April 17, 1870 in Lansing, Michigan. He started his newspaper career as a reporter for the Chicago News-Record. He was a leading national journalist who believed strongly in social reform. From the books he wrote, Baker was able to expose problems in society, identify control, incite a response from his readers, and maintain his authority over his work. Woodrow Wilson respected and supported Baker, and eventually ended up working as Woodrow's press secretary. Here are a select few of books written by Baker which were written under his pen name David Grayson:

• Boys' Book of Inventions (1899)
• Our New Prosperity (1900)
• Seen in Germany (1901)
• Adventures in Contentment (1907)
• Following the Color Line (1908)
• The Spiritual Unrest (1910)
• Adventures of Friendship (1910)
• The Friendly Road: New Adventures in Contentment (1913)
• Great Possessions: A New Series of Adventures (1917)
• The New Industrial Unrest (1920)
• Woodrow Wilson and World Settlement (1922)
• Adventures in Understanding (1925)
• Adventures in Solitude (1931)
• Woodrow Wilson: Life and Letters (1939)"We muckraked, not because we hated our world, but because we loved it. We were not hopeless, we were not cynical, we were not bitter."– Ray Stannard Baker.
• This cartoon represents the importance of the problems in society he revealed to the world.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q38iwMJzQV8

This very short clip made up by a student gives additional insight on his reform.

Jane Addams

Jane was born on September 6, 1860, in Cedarville, Illinois. She is known mainly for her work as a social reformer, pacifist and feminist during the late 19th century and early 20th century. She was one of the most prominent reformers of the progressive era. She contributed to make the issues in concern to mothers, like the needs of children, public health, and world peace. She was a pioneer settlement worker and founder of the Hull House in Chicago. The Hull House provided social and educational opportunities for working class people in the surrounding neighborhood. She wrote The Spirit of Youth and the City Streets which also helped to make he reform a success.

This was the book she was know for, and in this book, she stated her personal beliefs that caused some controversy.

This was a cartoon that represents how people made fun of pacifists like Jane Addams through the newspaper company.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5R6GajHiJyk

This video gives a better description of the Hull House in which started her argument for reforming and helping struggling women and children.

Ida Tarbell

Ida Minerva Tarbell was born on November 5, 1857 and died January 6, 1944. She was an American journalist, author, and teacher. She was a social reformer and one of the leading "muckrakers" of the progressive era. She wrote many known magazine series and biographies. Her multiple contributions in McClure's Magazine lead to her having her own book in 1904, in which she was best known for, The History of the Standard Oil Company, and a new magazine. She researched industrial and corporate corruption. She had started working with exposing fraud in political lawlessness and big businesses. Her attack was meant for Rockefeller for having so much control of his business.

Her book inspired many other journalists to write about trusts and large businesses that attempted to gain monopolies in various industries. This book was credited with the breakup of Standard Oil, which came about in 1911, when the Supreme Court found the company to be violating the Sherman Antitrust Act.

This political cartoon represents Ida because she exposed the control the standard oil company had taken over and that's what this photo represents.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5Yog7FyAFyA

This video gives you an overview of her life and helps you to understand why she would even want to expose this company to the public.

Upton Sinclair

Upton Sinclair was a muckraker who was born in Baltimore on September 20, 1878. He was very religious and had an incredible fascination for literature. He was very intelligent and entered New York City College when he was just fourteen. He wrote about the living conditions in Chicago's meat packaging factories. He wrote 48 books but his most popular is The Jungle. This exposed the meat factory conditions causing an awareness in the public that took part in the passage a few months later when the government responded to the reform in 1906 creating the Meat Inspection Act and the Pure Food and Drug Act. He published The Brass Check, a muckraking exposure of American journalism, that made the issue of yellow journalism and limits of "free press" in the United States. Four years later, the first code of ethics for journalism was created.

This was one of the covers for his book The Jungle that exposed the meat factories like the one shown below.

This is a political cartoon representing the fact that he had exposed the horrific conditions of meat factories.

This video represents what he truly exposed to the rest of the world and some of the deadly conditions these workers experienced everyday.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h2ppaJwQ9UM

What is a Muckraker?

The progressive era was a period of social activism and reform that was held from 1890-1920's. The goal of the era was to purify the government ans muckrakers try to expose them. A muckraker is a term used for a group of journalists and authors who brought social problems to light and advocate for reform.

These were the articles in the newspapers that would often be seen about the Muckrakers in their time.

This was one of the many anti-muckraker cartoons that made fun of the fact that they were trying to advocate for reforming their government.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RwV2lWOgX1M

This video gives an insight onto what a muckraker is so that it will be easier to understand the people we are focusing on.