Muckrakers: Corruption And Abuse

Upton Sinclair is most known for his criticisms of the meat packaging industry in his book The Jungle. For close to 2 months, Sinclair worked in a Chicago meat package plant in order to expose the hidden truths of the industry. This was one of the first examples of a journalist immersing themselves in the material coved in

Sinclair 's The Jungle is one of the most important examples of early twentieth century muckraker journalism, muckrakers sought to expose the corruption within business and government. Journalist did this by publishing articles and books often describing in

With the growth of cities and factories, citizens began to see unsafe and filthy conditions that progressives tackled to change. Muckrakers, journalists who exposed both government and corporations for their corruption, caused the most waves in change regarding consumer protection. Although at times the pieces by muckrakers were exaggerated, they were able to generate public awareness on issues that would have otherwise been swept under the carpet. One of the most notable pieces was “The Jungle, “by Upton Sinclair. Although he had originally wanted to expose the harsh conditions faced by immigrants throughout industrialized parts of America, he inadvertently exposed the meat industry for their unsanitary practices. Upton Sinclair made the public very aware of what is actually in their meat.

However, over time government corruption became common. Reformers like Teddy Roosevelt in Washington and Governor Hiram Johnson in California responded to an epidemic of political and civic corruption by expanding the role of government in regulating the economy and in giving citizens, for the first time, direct access to the legislative process. The federal income tax and the direct election of senators, for example, were a part of the Populist program, and Prohibition grew from a pre‐Civil War anti‐alcohol reform tradition. In addition, muckrakers, reform-minded American journalist who targeted corruption, made Americans aware of the serious failings in society and built public support for change. Exposés such as Lincoln Steffens ' The Shame of the Cities (1904), an attack on municipal corruption, and Ida Tarbell 's History of the Standard Oil Company (1904), which chronicled John D. Rockefeller 's ruthless business practices, often first appeared in the new mass circulation magazines, such as McClure 's and Cosmopolitan, and were later published as books. The muckrakers ' impact could be powerful, as in the case of Upton Sinclair 's The Jungle (1906), a book whose vivid descriptions of working and sanitary conditions in Chicago 's meatpacking plants led directly to federal laws regulating the industry. Other political reforms included the direct primary a preliminary

The first of the muckrakers to be discussed is Jacob Riis. Riis was born and raised in Denmark, but moved to New York when he was twenty- one years old. He grew up in an impoverished household with fourteen other siblings; therefore, he understood the struggle of the needy that lived in New York (“Jacob Riis Muckraker”).

Upton Sinclair, an american writer who wrote nearly 100 books. Jacob Riis, Upton Sinclair, Lincoln Steffens, and Ida Tarbell were the best-known of the so-called muckrakers, crusading journalists active from about 1890 to 1910 who helped to bring about a number of governmental reforms. Writing for newspapers *Jacob* and magazines *Steffens and Tarbell*, or publishing novels *Upton Sinclair* , these writers were best in writing stories about the suffering of underpaid workers, government corruption, and shady dealings by business executives like John D Rockefeller (1839–1937). By bringing these stories to light, the muckrakers encouraged strong corrective action to be taken by

Upton Sinclair is one of the most well known muckrakers from the Progressive Era(1890-1920). He was a writer who wrote about 100 books and won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in 1943. In 1904 he was sent to Chicago by the socialist newspaper,Appeal to Reason,to expose the meatpacking industry and created it into a novel called The Jungle. According to “Upton Sinclair's The Jungle:Muckraking the Meat-Packing Industry” it states, ‘“Almost as an afterthought, Sinclair included a chapter on how diseased, rotten, and contaminated meat products were processed, doctored by chemicals, and mislabeled for sale to the public. He wrote that workers would process dead, injured, and diseased animals after regular hours when no meat inspectors were around. He explained how pork fat and beef scraps were canned and labeled as "potted chicken."’ This is what Sinclair would write about in The Jungle. It became very

Upton Sinclair was the author of a book called "The Jungle". His book was designed to bring light to the conditions of those who canned meat in Chicago, but his foul descriptions of the unsanitary food, and the vile slaughterhouses resonated with his readers much more.

     While the works of Upton Sinclair are not widely read today because of their primacy of social change rather than aesthetic pleasure, works like The Jungle are important to understand in relation to the society that produced them.  Sinclair was considered a part of the muckraking era, an era when social critics observed all that was wrong and corrupt in business and politics and responded against it.  The Jungle was written primarily as a harsh indictment of wage slavery, but its vivid depictions of the deplorable lack of sanitation involved in the meatpacking industry in Chicago resulted in public outrage to the point where Congress passed the Pure Food and Drug Act and the Meat Inspection

Thesis Statement: Upton Sinclair was a muckraker who wrote, “The Jungle”, which exposed the problems of the meatpacking industry.

Muckrakers brought wider attention to a vast amount of issues through the publication of articles and books. They earned the name "muckrakers" because they were criticized as being obsessed with the seamier side of American life. They exposed urban political corruption and corporate wrongdoing. A few famous examples would be Lincoln Steffens's The Shame of the Cities (1904), Ida Tarbell's

The muckrakers were very effective in taking charge and trying to change issues during the industrial revolution. They used clever techniques to grab the attention of the public and expose the factories for the production of dubious products and forcing morbid, life threating work onto employees. One of these techniques muckrakers would use was when the authors would tell the readers of the different ages of certain workers working in these life threatening conditions. Perhaps the most successful techniques were used by Upton Sinclair. According to the Slate.com “Sinclair's book is renowned for its social impact more than for its qualities as a novel.” He uncovered the meat factories of utilizing human meat once in a while when a workers fell

In short, Muckraker journalists exposed almost every corner of corrupt corporations and politics. In this period, new corporations, factories, and businesses boomed. To expose these corporations and leaders many reporters began to write articles on these corporations, which later became known as Muckraking. Big corporations began to handle their workers as slaves. But in the same time, corruption in these corporations and businesses also emerged. During the second half of 19th Century, United States experienced Prosperity and Power. In addition, leaders of the nation was also involved in the corruption scandals. Another muckraker was Upton Sinclair, who exposed the dangerous production of foods and drugs in the US. He reported how meat productions

Have you ever heard of the book called The Jungle? This book was written by Upton Sinclair, a muckraker. Harry Sinclair Lewis was a janitor at Upton Sinclair's socialist colony and he was influenced by Sinclair’s idea of socialism. Therefore, their ideas are very much alike even though their childhood backgrounds were completely different. Upton Sinclair had a great impact on society by addressing social issues in the early 1900’s, so what is the significance of Lewis’s works? Some of his major representative works are Main Street, Babbitt, and Arrowsmith (“Assignment Five -- Sinclair Lewis Babbitt”). These books played a big role on muckraking the social corruptions in his time period.

An example of a contemporary muckraker work is Ralph Nader's Unsafe at Any Speed (1965) and one of the more well known from the early period is Upton Sinclair's The Jungle, (1906) which, respectively, led to reforms in automotive manufacturing and meat packing in the United States. Some of the most famous of the early muckrakers are Ida Tarbell, Lincoln Steffens, and Ray Stannard Baker.