Term paper on Muckraking

Muckraking

During the Progressive era, a number of writers articulated and promoted a wide variety of reform causes that stemmed from such serious problems as corrupt politics, economic monopolies, harmful foods and medicines, and endangered natural resources. A small number of journals, most notably McClure’s , led the movement, but certain novels, especially Upton Sinclair’s The Jungle , also contributed. Major muckraking journalists included Lincoln Steffens and Ida Tarbell. Both highly popular and profitable for roughly a decade, muckraking journalism declined in importance just prior to World War I.

Suggestions for Term Papers

1. Why did muckraking originate when it did?

2. How does one account for the popularity and subsequent decline of muckraking?

3. How important was muckraking for achieving Progressive era reforms?

4. Analyze the contributions to reform made by a noted muckraker.

5. Compare the muckraking of the Progressive era with today’s investigative journalism.

Suggested Sources : See entries 8 and 13 for related items.

muckrakers’ influence on American journalism, with a fine bibliography.

Weinberg, Arthur, and Lila Weinberg, eds. The Muckrakers: The Era in Journalism That Moved America to Reform: The Most Significant Magazine Articles of 1902–1912 . New York : Simon&Schuster, 1961. Revealing collection of landmark articles annotated by the editors; critical treatment of social conditions and political corruption.

Wilson, Harold S. McClure’s Magazine and the Muckrakers . Princeton , NJ : Princeton University Press, 1970. Important work providing insight into the relationship between the magazine and muckraking journalism.

BIOGRAPHICAL SOURCES

Applegate, Edd. Journalistic Advocates and Muckrakers: Three Centuries of Crusading Writers. Jefferson , NC : McFarland, 1997. Comprehensive collective biography of literary social reformers, including the leading muckrakers.

Brady, Kathleen. Ida Tarbell: Portrait of a Muckraker . New York : Seaview Books, 1984. Good introduction to this author.

Cather, Willa, ed. The Autobiography of S. S. McClure. (1914). Reprint. Lincoln : University of Nebraska Press, 1997. Standard source, with excellent introduction by Robert Thacker.

Cook, Fred J. The Muckrakers: Crusading Journalists Who Changed America . Garden City, NY: Doubleday, 1972. Collective biography providing informative biographical sketches of the reform journalists.

Griffith , Sally F. Home Town News: William Allen White and the Emporia Gazette . New York : Oxford University Press, 1989. Useful biography of the crusading Progressive journalist and editor.

Kaplan, Justin. Lincoln Steffens: A Biography . (1974). Reprint. New York : Simon&Schuster, 1988. Definitive work on Steffens.

Kochersberger, Robert C., ed. More Than a Muckraker: Ida Tarbell’s Lifetime in Journalism . Knoxville : University of Tennessee Press, 1996. A collection of essays.

Scott, Ivan. Upton Sinclair, The Forgotten Socialist. Lewiston, NY : Edwin Mellen, 1997. Best book-length study of this writer.

PERIODICAL ARTICLES

Scriabine, Christine. ‘‘Upton Sinclair and the Writing of The Jungle .” Chicago History 10(1): 26–37 (1981). Evolution of this milestone in muckraking fiction.

GENERAL SOURCES

Camhi, Jane J. Women Against Women: American Anti-Suffragism, 1880–1920 . Brooklyn , NY : Carlson Publishing, 1994. Interesting and provocative account of antisuffragist influences; full chapter on Ida Tarbell’s life and work.

Ward, Hiley H. Mainstreams of American Media History . Needham Heights , MA : Allyn&Bacon, 1997. An excellent text on media history from ancient times to the computer age. Chapter 10 treats muckraking in detail.

SPECIALIZED SOURCES

Brasch, Walter M. Forerunners of Revolution: Muckrakers and the American Social Conscience . Lanham , MD : University Press of America , 1990. Links muckraking and twentieth-century American political and social activism.

Chalmers, David M. The Social and Political Ideas of the Muckrakers . Freeport , NY : Books for Libraries, 1970. Standard work identifying various muckrakers and their ideologies (Ida Tarbell, Lincoln Steffens, Upton Sinclair, and others).

Filler, Louis. Appointment at Armageddon: Muckraking and Progressivism in the American Tradition . Westport , CT : Greenwood , 1976. Detailed account providing insight into politics and government, with an examination of the social conditions that spurred the efforts of the crusading journalists.

The Muckrakers . (1968). Reprint. Stanford , CA : Stanford University Press, 1996. Major effort by a leading social historian and expert on the Progressive era; detailed examination of social conditions of the time and the activity of social reformers.

Fitzpatrick, Ellen, ed. Muckraking: Three Landmark Articles . Boston : Bedford Books/St. Martin’s, 1994. Fine resource containing three landmark articles taken from the January 1903 issue of McClure’s magazine.

Miraldi, Robert. Muckraking and Objectivity: Journalism’s Colliding Traditions . Westport , CT : Greenwood , 1990. Good discussion of Suggested Sources : See entries 7 and 13 for related items.

GENERAL SOURCES

Nash, Roderick, comp. and ed. The American Environment: Readings in the History of Conservation . 2d ed. Reading , MA : Addison-Wesley, 1976. Useful collection of source material and writings identifying the issues and environmental influences of their times.

Petulla, Joseph M. American Environmental History: The Exploitation and Conservation of Natural Resources . San Francisco : Boyd&Fraser Publishing, 1977. Revealing historical account of environmental policy over the years.

Richardson, Elmo R. The Politics of Conservation: Crusades and Controversies, 1897–1913. (1962). Reprint. Milwood, NY : Kraus, 1980. Good study of the relationship between reform and partisan politics.

Stefoff, Rebecca. The American Environmental Movement . New York : Facts on File, 1995. Provides a good historical overview, along with a reading list and chronology. Part of the publisher’s Social Reform Movements series.

Williams, Michael. Americans and Their Forests: A Historical Geography . New York : Cambridge University Press, 1989. Thorough and detailed history of American forests, forestry, and forest products industry.

Wunder, John R. Working the Range: Essays on the History of Western Land Management and the Environment . Westport , CT : Greenwood , 1985. Collection of writings on land use and environmental land management in the American West.

SPECIALIZED SOURCES

Dorsey, Kurkpatrick. The Dawn of Conservation Diplomacy: U.S.-Canadian Wildlife Protection Treaties in the Progressive Era . Seattle : University of Washington Press, 1998. Informative examination of agreements on the environment reached by the two countries during the age of progressivism.

Hays, Samuel P. Conservation and the Gospel of Efficiency: The Progressive Conservation Movement, 1890–1920 . (1959). Reprint. Pittsburgh : University of Pittsburgh , 1999. Revealing and insightful historical survey of the underlying themes regarding the environmental policies and conservation movement of the Progressive era.

Penick, James L., Jr. Progressive Politics and Conservation: The Ballinger-Pinchot Affair . Chicago : University of Chicago Press, 1968. Brief but revealing account of the controversy between Ballinger, the sec- retary of the interior, and Pinchot, the head of the Forest Service who was removed by Taft.

BIOGRAPHICAL SOURCES

Cohen, Michael P. The Pathless Way: John Muir and the American Wilderness . Madison : University of Wisconsin Press, 1984. Useful scholarly biography.

Cutright, Paul R. Theodore Roosevelt: The Making of a Conservationist . Urbana : University of Illinois Press, 1985. Covers Roosevelt’s background as a naturalist and outdoorsman, which prepared him for his efforts on behalf of the conservation movement.

Fox, Stephen. John Muir and His Legacy: The American Conservation Movement . Boston : Little, Brown, 1981. Equally good as a biography and a history of conservationism.

Lucas, Eileen. Naturalists, Conservationists and Environmentalists . New York : Facts on File, 1994. Profiles John Muir and John James Audubon, plus ten other Americans.

Pinkett, Harold T. Gifford Pinchot: Private and Public Forester. (1970). Reprint. Ann Arbor : UMI, 1992. A brief, useful biography with a good bibliography, originally published by the University of Illinois .

Sterling , Keir B. Biographical Dictionary of American and Canadian Naturalists and Environmentalists . Westport , CT : Greenwood , 1997. Covers nearly 450 Canadian and American naturalists and conservationists. Entries average about two pages each.

Strong, Douglas Hillman. Dreamers and Defenders: American Conservationists . Rev. ed. Lincoln : University of Nebraska Press, 1988. Standard survey and collective biography of the American conservation effort.

PERIODICAL ARTICLES

Ponder, Stephen. ‘‘ ‘Nonpublicity’ and the Unmaking of a President: William Howard Taft and the Ballinger-Pinchot Controversy of 1909–1910.” Journalism History 19:111–120 (1994). Details this crucial battle.

Watkins, T. H. ‘‘Father of the Forests.” American Heritage 42: 86–98 (February 1991). Pinchot’s role in U.S. Forest Service.

AUDIOVISUAL SOURCES

The Wilderness Idea: Battle for Wilderness . Santa Monica , CA : PBS Home Video, 1989. Videocassette. Traces Pinchot’s and Muir’s careers and opposing views in 60-minute presentation from The American Experience series.

WORLD WIDE WEB

Library of Congress. ‘‘The Evolution of the Conservation Movement, 1850–1920.” American Memory . April 1997. http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/amrvhtml/conshome.html Extraordinary source materials: photographs, hard-to-find printed works, and manuscripts. Exceptional year-by-year chronology.