Muckrakers
Writers have been describing the harsh working conditions for decades, so muckraking really wasn't that new. But the use of photography for documentation was. Lewis Hine's and Jacob Riis for example, were well known progressive era photographers. For many of the writers this is not their only book nor their most famous, but they are all tied in with the progressive era.
Thomas NastPolitical Cartoons (1895)
Thomas Nast was a caricaturist and an editorial cartoonist. He was considered to be the "Father of the American Cartoon". Many of his drawings captured what was going on during the reforms, and also educated the common man.
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Jacob RiisHow the Other Half Lives (1890)
A photographer and publisher for the New York Times Jacob Riis, photographed and published a book on how the poor people lived. He titled his work "How the Other Half Lives" biased because of this. Riss did this to show just how they lived in the poor conditions of the Tenement Houses.
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Ida B. WellsA Red Record (1895)
Ida B. Wells, born a slave, was a journalist, and a suffragist. Later in life she would marry Ferdinand L. Barnett, the newspaper editor of "Chicago Conservator". She was an early leader in the civil rights movement. She documented lynching or the hanging of African Americans, in her book "A Red Record". She contributed many other articles concerning the Jim Crow laws of 1895.
She was also convicted of sitting on a train and not giving up her seat. She was told by the conductor to reframe from her position but she refused. She is known as the "Original" Rosa Parks. (Original Parks) |
Frank NorrisThe Octopus (1901)
Frank Norris was an American journalist in 1901 he published "The Octopus: A Story of California". In his book he describes the railroad company as being like the octopus, who strangles everything that it touches. He also describes the octopus to the transcontinental railroad, because it resembles the railroad system.
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Ida TarbellHistory of Standard Oil Company (1904)
Ida Tarbell, a journalist for the McClure’s Magazine was known for her book “The History of the Standard Oil Company” which was published in 1904. Her book was important because it made regulations to the monopoly of oil companies. She wanted to expose John D. Rockefeller's business practices, and also by saying that he was a cunning and ruthless person.
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Lincoln Steffens
The Shame of Cities (1904)
Lincoln Steffens, a New York reporter who launched a series of articles in McClure's Magazine that would later be published together in a book titled "The Shame of the Cities" Published in 1904. He was notable for investigating corruption in municipal government in cities across America. He wanted to make improvements to the cities by exposing the corrupt politicians for being dishonest and shameful to their constituents.
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Lewis Hine's
Photographs of Child Labor (1905)
Lewis Hine's was a photographer, and a sociologist. His photographs exposed how children would work long, and hard hours, for little pay. Ten years after his photographs the Keating-Owen Act of 1916 were in acted which stated that no one under the age of 14 could work, children cannot work past night, or more than 8 hours a day. 2 million children were working for wedges under the age of 15 at this time.
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Upton SinclareThe Jungle (1906)
"The Jungle" was written by Upton Sinclair, the book was about the meatpacking industry of 1906, Chicago. It showed a satirical look at the harsh working conditions of Lithuanian immigrants working at a meatpacking company. It was political fiction, and many people where disgusted by the descriptions of rotten meat, Upton famously said "I wanted to make the reader feel with their hearts, but instead they felt with their stomachs". It seams that because of this "The Jungle" lead to the Pure Food and Drug Act, and Meat Inspection Act of 1906.(Lapsansky Werner Pg. 216)
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A comic strip showing how the meat gets to you. This coincides with Upton Sinclare's Book "The Jungle".