The Role Of The Muckrakers In The Progressive Era

The Progressive Era was a thirty year period in which the United States was completely reformed. Actions were taken to improve working conditions for laborers, create a sexually unbiased work system and regulate the economy. President Theodore Roosevelt and Woodrow Wilson both helped create a more direct democracy in which the people would have a voice. During those thirty years, amendments 16 to 19 were ratified to regulate and reform the country. Muckrakers were writers who worked for the printing companies exposed the public to all of the corruption that was occurring both openly and behind closed doors. By exposing the public to the corruption, American society was enlightened and inspired to reform itself.

The turn of the 20th century sparked a movement of reform. It included large groups and individuals with a passion and desire to make life better during the industrial age. Their ideas and works were known as progressivism, as reformers wanted to improve, change, and build upon society, government, and much more. One of the biggest progressive groups to emerge during this time were the muckrakers. Samuel Hopkins Adams was one of the most important muckrakers during the Progressive Era.

The middle and working classes were looked down upon by the wealthy capitalistic upper class. Muckrakers shed light on the shady business dealings the capitalistic upper class dealt in, and the corruption of politics. The society they showed made many Americans felt as though the fundamental principles and promises were violated. This is how progressivism was formed; a way to fix the broken society that many Americans now suffered in.

Investigative journalism has brought to light the many horrible things that were happening behind closed doors. Without investigative journalism and muckrakers, when would we have ever become aware of what was happening. Up until the early 1900’s, food and medicine industries were not as regulated as they are today. Muckrakers such as Upton Sinclair experienced the reality of meat packaging plants. He found how unsanitary the food was handled and how horribly the workers were being treated. Sinclair was disappointed that people only got to realize that their food was being mishandled rather than how harsh the workers were being treated. He famously quoted “I aimed at the public’s heart, and by accident I hit it in the stomach.”(gilderlehrman.org). Samuel Hopkins Adams exposed that patent medicines were dangerous. He explained that they were harming people rather than helping them

Muckrakers were one of the most successful groups during the Progressive era, their main goal was to raise awareness of social issues apparent in American society. Thus, their main goal was to bring justice to groups such as child labor. Primarily, the reporters found child labor laws as one of their most significant ventures in bringing justice to the community. Following publicized stories of child endangerment, unfair wages, grueling hours, and even death Progressives sought to intervene and were highly successful in making headway on regulating child labor. During the 1916 labor case, federal law proved successful in the Keating-Owen state of affairs that gave

Although the Progressive Era managed to solve much of the backwater left over from Industrialization, it failed in regards to discrimination. America would have to wait decades later for the issue of civil equality to truly be addressed. Due to the apathy of the politicians during that time, the desperate need for a scapegoat, and the hypocrisy people displayed when confronted with the topic, the movement that was intended to achieve “progress” in society completely forgot about equality.

The drive to reform the working and living conditions of the poor in American cities heralded the advent of the Progressive Era, in which social and political activism and reform aimed to reconcile issues of Reconstruction. Writers like Upton Sinclair described ghastly conditions in American factories. Their stories caught the nation’s attention, and political as well as labor action followed. Progressive politicians such as Theodore Roosevelt aggressively sought to reign in the excesses of monopolies. They viewed monopolies as using unfair leverage to hurt

Background-The Progressive Movement was an effort to cure many of the ills of American society that had developed during the great spurt of industrial growth in the last quarter of the 19th century. Progressives were mostly middle-class citizens who saw corruption and wanted change in society.

Her work for this magazine caught the attention of Samuel Sidney McClure, the founder of McClure’s Magazine, who was looking for writers for his new monthly publication. Tarbell was hired as an editor in 1894 and quickly became McClure’s Magazine‘s most successful writer. She became very successful due to her series on Abraham Lincoln which nearly doubled the number of magazines sold. Later on, a whole new generation of investigative journalists called “muckrakers”, given the name by President Theodore Roosevelt, began a campaign to expose corruption in businesses. Theodore Roosevelt gave these opinionated journalists the pessimistic label ‘muckrakers’ in a speech in 1906. Despite this negative label, Tarbell campaigned with the other journalists.

During the Progressive Era, many citizens attempted to stop the racism within former confederate states by exposing the horrors of the wrongdoings, through speeches, protests, literature and other means of expression, who were known as progressives. One progressive, Ida B. Wells. helped to expose lynchings and racial discrimination through the use of bold and clear literature. Another, Booker T. Washington, believed that blacks should become more economically independent, so that discrimination will eventually cease. W.E.B. Dubois, another progressive, wanted and expressed instant racial equality through the use of forming groups and classic literature.

Muckrakers were investigative journalists who tried to make the public aware of the problems in society that needed fixing. They stemmed from yellow journalism, which was a style of reporting that used exaggeration to attract readers. In a speech made by U.S. President Theodore Roosevelt in 1906, the term muckraker was used in a derogatory way, he “ borrowed the word from John Bunyan 's Puritan story Pilgrim 's Progress, which spoke of a man with a “Muck-rake in his hand” who raked filth rather than look up to nobler things.” However, it eventually came to take on a positive overtone due to the serious social issues of the progressive era the muckrakers had underlined. The muckrakers during the progressive era inspired Americans to take action and hence are responsible for the social change that took place at that time.

In the Progressive Era, influential journalists wanted to expose the government and big business of their flaws to American citizens with using factual and proven evidence against them. Muckrakers, who are journalists that seek out the truth of corruption among the government and business leaders, became well known due to how many people were amazed by the revealed injustices and dishonesty in the

As the Gilded Age was ending, and the Progressive Era was emerging, most American families had to live with the harsh realities of sweatshops, slums, child labor, corruption in government and businesses, disease, and racial prejudice. People started to realize that change and reform were needed, that was when muckrakers came in trying to expose and show citizens the corruption in government and business, and also the terrible conditions of the working class Americans. Soon after the muckrakers published numerous articles, books, and photographs, people demanded change. Through individual and group actions, they were able to achieve this and get policies and programs enacted.

The Progressive Era was a period that changed America greatly due to political reforms and social activism. This era brought forth many changes in America and almost all Americans were involved in this movement somehow. This period began in the late 1800s and lasted until the mid-1900s. The Progressive Era was one of the biggest movements in America. The main point of this movement was to purify the government. Several historians have wrote excerpts on their perspective of the Progressive Era. George Mowry, Joseph Huthmacher, and Glenda Elizabeth Gilmore are three key Progressive historians. In their writings, each of the historians explain who the Progressives were, who was affected during this time, events that took place in the community and government, and other topics.

The progressive Era was times in History were local state and federal government took a leap forward in power and activism. In addition, the progressive era, was a time of development of new reforms and changes for America. Progressivism handles a wide range of problems and struggle for America. Such problems were created by unstructed industrialization, urbanization and immigration. As well as, the unfavorable distribution of power and wealth. Progressives believed strongly that problems such as these needed immediate action. Progressives existed in churches, organized labor, local political life, organizations and progressives of high education. Progressives wanted to make America better through inniatives, arranged action, idealism and social scientific research. Progressive had a tendency to expect the best possible outcome of situations. By, the 1920’s, progressives put in effect, changes of all aspects of society and government. Nevertheless, progressives had unhonorable qualities as well. They were biased of class and prejudiced against races.