Muckrakers were early twentieth-century reformers whose 1
mission was to look for and uncover political and business corruption.
The term muckraker, which referred to the "man with a muckrake"
in John Bunyan's Pilgrim's Progress, was first used in a pejorative
sense by Theodore Roosevelt, whose opinion of the muckrakers was
that they were biased and overreacting. The movement began about
1902 and died down by 1917. Despite its brief duration, however, it
had a significant impact on the political, commercial, and even literary
climate of the period. 2
Many popular magazines featured articles whose purpose was 3
to expose corruption. Some of these muckraking periodicals included
The Arena, Everybody's, The Independent, and McClure's. Lincoln
Steffens, managing editor of McClure's (and later associate editor of
American Magazine and Everybody's), was an important leader of
the muckraking movement. Some of his exposés were collected in his
1904 book The Shame of the Cities and in two other volumes, and
his 1931 autobiography also discusses the corruption he uncovered
and the development of the muckraking movement. Ida Tarbell,
another noted muckraker, wrote a number of articles for McClure's,
some of which were gathered in her 1904 book The History of the
Standard Oil Company.
Muckraking appeared in fiction as well. David Graham Phillips, 4
who began his career as a newspaperman, went on to write
muckraking magazine articles and eventually novels about
contemporary economic, political, and social problems such as
insurance scandals, state and municipal corruption, shady Wall Street
dealings, slum life, and women's emancipation.
Perhaps the best-known muckraking novel was Upton Sinclair's 5
The Jungle, the 1906 exposé of the Chicago meatpacking industry.
The novel focuses on an immigrant family and sympathetically and
realistically describes their struggles with loan sharks and others who
take advantage of their innocence. More importantly, Sinclair
graphically describes the brutal working conditions of those who find
work in the stockyards. Sinclair's description of the main character's
In 1906, socialist Upton Sinclair published The Jungle, a book he hoped would awaken the American people to the deplorable conditions of workers in the meat packing industry. Instead, the book sent the country reeling with its description of filthy, rat infested plants, suspect meats processed and sold to consumers, and corrupt government inspectors. President Roosevelt became seriously concerned by the charges brought forth by Mr. Sinclair and determined the only way to protect consumers from unscrupulous business and unsafe food was to enforce regulation.
Also, early Abolitionist works--Stowe's Uncle Tom's Cabin and Helper's The Impending Crisis used muckraking to get a point across. However, events during the 1890s most directly paved the way for the critiques and exposures of existing conditions. This period was able to reach a limited upper class and the muckrakers were able to expand appeal to the average middle class citizen (Reiger 49-50). One reason for the outspread of muckraking was the explosion of journalism. From 1870-1909 the number of daily newspapers circulated boomed from 574 to 2,600 and the number of subscribers from 2,800,000 to 24,800,000.
The Second Industrial Revolution brought about many changes in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. While there was much prosperity, it was unequally distributed among the lower, middle, and upper classes. Although the inequality was apparent, the national government deliberately chose to take a laissez-faire stand, thus allowing big businesses to flourish but at the expense of the people. Free to do as they pleased, businesses engaged in unfair, immoral business practices not only on their competitors but also their employees and consumers. To combat this oppressive state, Americans, concerned with the welfare of the people, spoke out about these problems and encouraged reform, raising awareness through their writing. These people were known as "muckrakers," a term coined by President Theodore Roosevelt. They "raked" through the "muck" in order to expose society and corruption. Some even called these muckrakers, David, in reference to the Biblical story of David and Goliath, striking down the Goliaths (or corruptions) of society. Because society (then) revered muckrakers as great heroes, it was easy to ignore the muckraker's flaws. However, it is important to analyze the muckrakers from a more critical standpoint as well as a celebratory view in order to get a more accurate understanding of their consequential impact.
Stiggins, R. J. (2006, November/December). Assessment for learning: A key to motivation and achievement. Edge, 2, 3-19.
It is not a surprise that journalists go to extreme lengths in order to get “dirt” on a certain subject. These journalists are often given the title of “muckraker.” The term holds many connotations; some believe that they are journalists who go a bit too far, while others believe that they are simply people whose main goal is to expose any sort of misconduct. Many people disagree on whether or not being given the title of a “muckraker” is honorable, and it causes a lot of arguments in the modern era. Because of this, it is important that everyone eventually ends up on the same side to prevent further disagreement.
A serial killer means, the person has killed at least three people or above in a short period. There are many different types of serial killers. Gary Ridgway was “The Organized Killer”; it
Interviewee: It seems that the majority of the stories in tabloids are sad at the beginning however they always tend to turn happy towards the end. Like it could be "I was kidnaped by an alien but they eventually returned me back home with special powers!".
Artificial Intelligence (AI) is one of the newest fields in Science and Engineering. Work started in earnest soon after World War II, and the name itself was coined in 1956 by John McCarthy. Artificial Intelligence is an art of creating machines that perform functions that require intelligence when performed by people [Kurzweil, 1990]. It encompasses a huge variety of subfields, ranging from general (learning and perception) to the specific, such as playing chess, proving mathematical theorems, writing poetry, driving a car on the crowded street, and diagnosing diseases. Artificial Intelligence is relevant to any intellectual task; it is truly a Universal field. In future, intelligent machines will replace or enhance human’s capabilities in
Serial killers differ from other types of murderers. The number of serial killers in the U.S. is staggering. Differences are clear between serial killing and conventional murders. Serial killing can be classified as either motive based or organizational and social based. The Holmes Typology helps to understand the motivations behind serial killing. Serial killers may be even motivated by fame as part of their motivation for killing. John Wayne Gacy could be seen as evil due to his repeated violent acts. Jeffrey Dahmer was also evil by committing his acts of serial murders. Both Gacy and Dahmer had police records prior to their arrests for serial murders. Serial killers are poor candidates for rehabilitation. Their acts are evil.
Assessment is defined in the Merriam – Webster Dictionary as “the act of making a judgement about something” and thus connotes a worthwhile activity based on sound, careful thought. In Education, assessment has been variously defined as “any systematic method for obtaining information from tests and other sources, used to draw inferences about characteristics of people, objects or programs” (AERA, APA, & NCME, 1999, p.172); “any purported and formal action to obtain information about the competence and performance of a candidate’ (Schuwirth & van der Vleuten, 2014. p.243). Generally, assessment has three purposes. First, to determine what students do and do not know,
In the mystery genre one can agree that for a mystery to function as it does, it must have elements like a case that must be solved, a detective or someone who is playing as the detective, and, in most cases, murder. But in the short story “A Scandal in Bohemia,” by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, a social scandal is a part of the theme, which is also seen in “Witness for the Prosecution,” by Agatha Christie and “Amber Gate,” by Walter Mosley. Just as a murder or a crime disrupts an aspect of society, a social scandal functions the same way. Normally, what we view as the “private life” and “public life” is kept separately because private life operates as the “fantasy” of the two worlds by creating the image of a “normal life”, which consists of a good and happy husband and wife, the ability to be financially stable, social wellbeing and even in some cases a child. On the other hand, the public life consists of the poor, who are considered to be liars and cheaters, crime, murder, and heinous women. The private life predominately functions in favor of the man, more so a white male, and when the public, or characteristics of the public, alters the established private life, then his happiness ceases and the private fantasy is then disrupted or destroyed. Specifically speaking, the marginalized threaten the exposure of the social hierarchy by disrupting the domestic private fantasy by unmasking its instability.
"The King of Mulberry Street," focuses on Beniamino a ten year old, fatherless boy who gets snuck on to a boat headed for America. While on the ship he encounters others that were secretly aboard as well. They ask him about why Beniamino was there, alone and his name. He doesn't answer thinking about his Italian name. They offer him names to pick from to make him sound American once he arrives. "Let's call him Domenico. In America, though, he'll need an American name," said Eduardo. Joe would be better." He is forced to choose between the names Joe and Dom. He picks Dom. This proves that as he is approaching his new permanent life he does whatever to fit it. He is willing to change his name, that carries his Italian roots, to be accepted by
Throughout the history of the human race the few have held in their hands the lives of the many. Regardless of what type of government or society you observe, it has always been the minority in charge of the majority. It is true that in most cases the majority will reach a breaking point and take down the minority. However, there are those who continue to rule despite public unrest, or those who have the love and admiration of the very people they are abusing. The few have always found a way to climb atop the many, and remain there, defying all logic and reason. These methods fall into a few generalized categories, such as the use of fear, propaganda, drugs, and early childhood conditioning.
“Artificial Intelligence (AI) is the area of computer science focusing on creating machines that can engage on behaviors that humans consider intelligent.”AI has improved a lot in the last century, and is still advancing today. Different approaches in AI are used for different situations. Whether we notice it or not, AI is an important part of our lives. Artificial Intelligence
For example, the self-driving car fleet from Uber is already under active development and testing in Pittsburg. Competitiveness with Google Translate and Apple Siri show promise with language learning. With improvements in computer vision and legged locomotion, robots for unstructured environments become practical; these might include agricultural and service settings and helping humans (especially the elderly and infirm) with domestic chores. Finally, as machines improve their grasp of language, search engines and "personal assistants" on mobile phones will change from indexing web pages to understanding web pages, leading to qualitative improvements in their ability to answer questions, synthesize new information, offer advice, and connect the dots. AI may also have a substantial impact on areas of science, such as systems biology, where the complexity and volume of information challenges human abilities. (Russell,