From the end of the Civil War to the beginning of the twentieth century, the United States experienced significant growth and change. Wrapped up in these changes produced by industrialization and immigration, there were new political, social, and economic challeges, including poor living and working conditions in growing cities, political corruption, and demands for gender equality and agrarian reform.
Muckrackers, or investigative journalists and photographers, paved the way for societal changes by spreading awareness of some of these issues in need of reform. They reported about corporate monopolies and political machines, urban poverty, unsafe working conditions, prostitution, alcohol abuse, mental health issues, child labor, and more. Prominent muckrakers of the Progressive era include:
- Samuel Hopkins Adams
- Paul Y. Anderson
- Ray Stannard Baker
- Ambrose Bierce
- Nellie Bly
- Louis D. Brandeis
- Marion Hamilton Carter
- Julius Chambers
- B.O. Flower
- Burton J. Hendrick
- Helen Hunt Jackson
- Frances Kellor
- Thomas William Lawson
- Henry Demarest Lloyd
- Edwin Markham
- Gustavus Myers
- Frank Norris
- Fremont Older
- Drew Pearson
- Jacob Riis
- Charles Edward Russell
- Upton Sinclair
- John Spargo
- Lincoln Steffens
- Ida M. Tarbell
- John Kenneth Turner
- Ida B. Wells
Step 1: Fill out a table describing a historical or modern issue that was or is important to muckrackers and activists. You can pick Option 1 or Option 2.
Option 1: Choose one of the muckrakers above. Do some research to find out more about the person, the issue they publicized, and what, if anything, came of it. For this assignment, it’s okay to use Wikipedia or other simple secondary sources, but do not copy from them verbatim. Fill in each section with your own words. Include the URLs to your sources in the table.
Make a copy of the table below and fill it in with information about your chosen muckraker and issue. The first two rows require just a few words or short responses, but the last two responses should be summarized in a paragraph or two. Keep it informative, but simple.
Progressive Era Muckraking |
Evidence and Examples |
| Problem or issue in society | |
| Muckraker reporting on the issue | |
| Summary of reporting | |
| Resulting reform or impact | |
| Sources |
Option 2: Fill out a similar chart to that in Option 1, but for a modern-day issue. For this, you don’t necessarily need to highlight an investigate journalist, but you can pick an activist who is working to spread awarness about an issue.
Modern Era Muckraking |
Evidence and Examples |
| Problem or issue in society | |
| Investigative journalist or activist reporting or raising awareness about the issue | |
| Summary of reporting or of their activism (include link to an article or example) | |
| Resulting or suggested reform or impact | |
| Sources |
Worked Example
Modern Era Muckraking |
Evidence and Examples |
| Problem or issue in society | Climate change—specifically that we are not acting quickly enough to prevent accelerated climate change. |
| Investigative journalist or activist reporting or raising awareness about the issue | Greta Thunberg |
| Summary of reporting or of their activism (include link to an article or example) | Greta began her climate change activism at age 15 with a school climate strike by spending her time protesting outside of the Swedish parliament. As her popularity grew, similar strikes were orchestrated around the world. She first challenged her own family to lower their carbon footprint by becoming vegan, upcycling, and giving up flying, which she has encouraged others to do as well. In 2019, she gave a speech at the U.N. Climate Action Summit, in which she famously said, “We are in the beginning of a mass extinction, and all you can talk about is money and fairy tales of eternal economic growth. How dare you!” She said that cutting emissions by half in ten years is not aggressive enough, and we need to take dramatic measures to stay below 1.5 degrees. |
| Resulting or suggested reform or impact | Thunberg’s activism has led to increased awareness and activism, especially among youth, known as the “Greta Effect.” Her influence has been strong particularly in Europe, where more Green party candidates have been elected to parliaments and politically addressing climate change has become a priority. Greta has suggested reducing emissions by 80% and acting on climage change before we run out of time. |
| Sources |
Step 3: Post your completed table into the discussion forum.
Step 4: Respond to two classmates in the thread by making connections between their table and another era. If they chose a historical topic, respond with a modern connection. For example, if they wrote about Ida Tarbell, in your response, try to connect the work that Tarbell did to something equivalent in today’s world. Since Tarbell was known for writing about the Standard Oil Company and breaking that up, consider if there are other examples of people or activists reporting about monopolies or businesses today. You can be creative in these connections. If your classmate chose a modern topic, reply with a connection to progressive-era muckraking activites. For example, Greta Thunberg wrote about climate change today, but John Muir called for the importance of land preservation in the 1890s.
Your response posts should be at least a paragraph and should try to extend, complicate, or redirect the original poster’s points in a substantive, knowledge-demonstrating way. As always, if there are ideas from the assigned reading that seem relevant, be sure to bring those into the discussion.
Rubric
| Criteria | Developing | Satisfactory | Excellent | Points |
| Responds to prompt | Response is superficial, lacking in thoughtful analysis or critique. Contributes few novel ideas, connections, or applications. | Provides an accurate response to the prompt, but the information delivered is limited or lacking in analysis. | Provides a thoughtful and clear response to the content or question asked. The response includes original thoughts and novel ideas. | __/4 |
| Supporting Details | Includes vague or incomplete supporting evidence or fails to support opinions with facts. | Supports opinions with the required number of detailed factual responses, though connections may be unclear, not firmly established, or explicit. | Supports response with required evidence; makes connections to the course content and/or other experiences. Cites evidence when appropriate. | __/2 |
| Comments and participation | Provides brief responses or shows little effort to participate in the learning community. | Responds kindly and builds upon the comments from others, but may lack depth, detail, and/or explanation. | Kindly and thoroughly extend discussions already taking place or poses new possibilities or opinions not previously voiced. Response is substantive and constructive. | __/4 |
| Total | __/10 |