Muckraking was a powerful journalistic force, whose supporters made it become so. Muckraking was the practice of writers and critics exposing corrupt politicians and business practices. President Theodore Roosevelt made the term "muck-raker" popular. He once said
The man with the muck-rake, the man who could look no way but downward with the muck-rake in his hands; who was offered a celestial crown for his muckrake, but who would neither look up nor regard the crown he was offered, but continued to rake himself the filth of the floor.
Some, like Roosevelt viewed methods of muckrakers such as Ida Tarbell, Ray S. Baker, Lincoln Steffens, and Upton Sinclair as these types of people. Others saw these muckraking methods as perfectly acceptable for fighting against the industrial powerhouses. Either way, these muckrakers worked hard to arouse sentiment in the hearts of the public (Reiger 1).
Muckraking actually began long before the years of 1900-1902, when the muckraking movement is credited to have begun. Jesus was probably the first muckraker. Years later, Martin Luther exposed the corruptness of the Catholic Church. 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. With this increase, newspaper owners and editors needed new bait to reel in its subscribers. The newspaper editors wanted to replace ordinary town gossip with gossip about the latest events of the city. Therefore, in newspapers they placed the most shocking events and kept the rural mind drooling for more. As newspaper circulation grew, the large newspaper depended much less on political parties and could now even challenge them. Newspapers played on the new human interest, the concern of the wealthy with the affairs of those below them, status-wise. This "story of the poor" became the basic outline for muckraking (Ho...
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...direct success. However, indirectly, it was one of the most powerful journalistic movements of our history. The total circulation of the ten muckraking magazines reached over three million. Also, Upton Siclair's novels The Brass Check and The Jungle went over the hundred thousand mark by 1932. A new political movement of reformed capitalism was undergone as the muckraking era pounded out its grievances. Most importantly though, people, partly because of the information which muckrakers revealed, partly because of the visions of better things which reformers brought forth, and partly because of horrid personal experiences, began to regard big business as an enemy rather than a friend (Reiger 194-196).
Works Cited
Hofstadter, Richard. The Age of Reform. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1972.
Josephson, Matthew. The Robber Barons. San Diego: Harcourt Brace & Company, 1962.
Reiger, C. C. The Era of the Muckrakers. Massachusetts: Peter Smith, 1957.
Sinclair, Upton. "The Consequences of Land Speculation are Tenantry and Debt on the Farms, and Slums and Luxury in the Cities." Upton Sinclair. 1924. <http://home.vicnet.net.au/~earthshr/upton.html> (17 Dec. 1999)
DMD also known as muscular dystrophy is muscular disease that occurs on young boys around age four to six. Muscular dystrophy is genetically transmitted disease carried from parent to offspring. This disease progressively damages or disturbs skeletal and cardiac muscle functions starting on the lower limbs. Obviously by damaging the muscle, the lower limbs and other muscles affected become very weak. This is ultimately caused by the lack dystrophin, a protein the body produces.
During the late 1800's and early 1900's, change in American society was very evident in the economy. An extraordinary expansion of the industrial economy was taking place, presenting new forms of business organization and bringing trusts and holding companies into the national picture. The turn of the century is known as the "Great Merger Movement:" over two thousand corporations were "swallowed up" by one hundred and fifty giant holding companies.1 This powerful change in industry brought about controversy and was a source of social anxiety. How were people to deal with this great movement and understand the reasons behind the new advancements? Through the use of propaganda, the public was enlightened and the trusts were attacked. Muckraking, a term categorizing this type of journalism, began in 1903 and lasted until 1912. It uncovered the dirt of trusts and accurately voiced the public's alarm of this new form of industrial control. Ida Tarbell, a known muckraker, spearheaded this popular investigative movement.2 As a journalist, she produced one of the most detailed examinations of a monopolistic trust, The Standard Oil Company.3 Taking on a difficult responsibility and using her unique journalistic skills, Ida Tarbell was able to get to the bottom of a scheme that allowed the oil industry to be manipulated by a single man, John D. Rockefeller.
During the 1800’s, business leaders who built their affluence by stealing and bribing public officials to propose laws in their favor were known as “robber barons”. J.P. Morgan, a banker, financed the restructuring of railroads, insurance companies, and banks. In addition, Andrew Carnegie, the steel king, disliked monopolistic trusts. Nonetheless, ruthlessly destroying the businesses and lives of many people merely for personal profit; Carnegie attained a level of dominance and wealth never before seen in American history, but was only able to obtain this through acts that were dishonest and oftentimes, illicit. Document D resentfully emphasizes the alleged capacity of the corrupt industrialists. In the picture illustrated, panic-stricken people pay acknowledgment to the lordly tycoons. Correlating to this political cartoon, in 1900, Carnegie was willing to sell his holdings of his company. During the time Morgan was manufacturing
With the help of T. Thomas Fortune of the New York Age and Fredrick Douglas, she was able to work in the U.S and Britain where the press and public were considered to more enlightened with her point of view. Her audience for the first time learned in detail about all the gruesome tortures, burnings, and hangings done in the South. Her goal was to shame newspapers and other voices of media into acknowledging the truth about lynch mobs, “They are not heroes but cowardly criminals”. The Great Migration of African Americans during the 20th century showed that the terror of lynching was not just confined to its immediate victims but affected the lives of all blacks of all ages. Particularly frightening were the so-called “spectacle lynching’s” that were held right next to the revival meetings; the largest public events in the South prior to World War
Abbott, Martin. "Free Land, Free Labor and the Freedmen's Bureau." Agricultural History 30.4 (1956): 150-56.
Capitalism underwent a severe attack at the hands of Upton Sinclair in this novel. By showing the misery that capitalism brought the immigrants through working conditions, living conditions, social conditions, and the overall impossibility to thrive in this new world, Sinclair opened the door for what he believed was the solution: socialism. With the details of the meatpacking industry, the government investigated and the public cried out in disgust and anger. The novel was responsible for the passage of The Pure Food and Drug Act of 1906. With the impact that Sinclair must have known this book would have, it is interesting that he also apparently tried to make it fuction as propaganda against capitalism and pro-socialism.
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
Physiological Basis of disease: DMD is the commonest and most serious form of the dystrophies. The gene responsible for dystrophin which, when absent, causes DMD. Amount of dystrophin correlates with the severity of the disease (i.e., the less dystrophin present, the more severe the phenotype). Since the gene is on the X chromosome, it primarily affects males, and females who are carriers have milder symptoms ( www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/ency/article/000705.htm).
But Cady Stanton saw opportunity in public criticism. ‘Imagine the publicity given our ideas by thus appearing in a widely circulated sheet like the Herald!’ she wrote to Mott. ‘It will start women thinking, and men, too.’ She drafted lengthy responses to every negative newspaper article and editorial, presenting the reformers’ side of the issue to the readers. Mott sensed her younger colleague’s future role. ‘Thou art so wedded to this cause, ‘ she told Cady Stanton, ‘that thou must expect to act as pioneer in the
At the turn of the twentieth century “Muckraking” had become a very popular practice. This was where “muckrakers” would bring major problems to the publics attention. One of the most powerful pieces done by a muckraker was the book “The Jungle”, by Upton Sinclair. The book was written to show the horrible working and living conditions in the packing towns of Chicago, but what caused a major controversy was the filth that was going into Americas meat. As Sinclair later said in an interview about the book “I aimed at the publics heart and by accident hit them in the stomach.”# The meat packing industry took no responsibility for producing safe and sanitary meat.
Muscular dystrophy (MD) is a genetic disorder that weakens skeletal muscles, the muscles that enable the human body to move. People with muscular dystrophy have missing or incorrect information in their genes, which prevents them from making the proteins they need for healthy muscles. Due to fact that muscular dystrophy is genetic, it is not contagious or contractible from another person; a person must be born with the problem.
Muscular Dystrophy (MD) is a disease that weakens the musculoskeletal system and affects the ability to move. MD also affects groups of muscles. In the 1860’s it was described that boys were progressively growing weaker, losing the ability to move and died at an early age. A decade after the first description a French, neurologist named Guillaume Duchenne gave account for thirteen boys with the most common and severe forms of Muscular Dystrophy. MD is being caused by a mutation of a gene within the X chromosome, and affects predominately males. Most MD are multisystem disorders and can affect other body systems that include the heart, gastrointestinal, nervous system, endocrine glands, eyes and brain. There are over 50,000 people in the United States that are diagnosed or living with muscular dystrophy.
Whistle blowing is a controversial topic in the professional industry. Whistle blowing is the act of speaking out against a fellow colleague or even a friend that has done something non-ethical or illegal in the workplace. A whistleblower raises concerns about the wrongdoing inside of the workplace. Employees hesitate to become a whistleblower because of the idea of becoming a snitch on fellow employees and having a bad rep around the office. This concern was lowered in 1989 with a law called the Whistleblower Protection Act that protects federal government employees in the United States from retaliatory action for voluntarily disclosing information about dishonest or illegal activities occurring at a government organization (whistleblowers.gov).
It is estimated that 1 out of every 5,600-7,700 boys ages 5-24 have Duchene or Becker muscular dystrophy. (“Data & Statistics,” 2012 April 6) Muscular dystrophy is a group of genetic diseases defined by muscle fibers that are unusually susceptible to damage. There are several different types of muscular dystrophy some of which shorten the affected person’s lifespan. (“Muscular dystrophy: Types and Causes of each form,” n.d.) There is a long history of the disorder but until recently there wasn’t much knowledge of the cause. (“Muscular Dystrophy: Hope through Research,” 16 April 2014) Symptoms are obvious and can be seen as soon as a child starts walking. (“Muscular Dystrophy,” 2012 January 19) Although muscular dystrophy mostly affects boys, girls can get it too. (“Muscular Dystrophy,” 2012 January 19) There is no cure for muscular dystrophy but there are several types of therapy and most types of muscular dystrophy are still fatal. (“Muscular Dystrophy: Hope through Research,” 16 April 2014)
Each day an individual will make a decision that will affect their life in some way. Should I wear the green shirt or the yellow shirt? Should I order a shake or lemonade? Should I wash the car today or wait until tomorrow? These simple decisions often happen without serious thought. Why? Because these decisions are not life changing ones. But what happens when the decision is not so easy to make, when it’s life changing. Sometimes a person’s conscious greatly affects one’s decision making, especially when the topic of whistle blowing arises. In this paper, I will discuss and analyze whistle-blowing, where it occurs, the effects of whistle-blowing, the consequences of whistle-blowing, and finally I close my paper with a conclusion.