The Muckrakers

            The Muckrakers are the first people give progressive ideas. They were journalists who searched social conditions and political corruption. The Muckrakers was a nickname given to them by Theodore Roosevelt, and it referred to a character Pilgrim’s Progress by John Bunyan. This character was greatly similar to the muckrakers for the both of them would find scandal and filth. Roosevelt said the muckrakers were obsessed with the scandal and corruption that was happening. Their ideas were spread by cheap newspapers and magazines, which were widely spread around the nation.

            These Muckrakers would dedicate their lives to searching for the latest corruption that happened. Often times they would look into exposing large companies. The beef industry was exposed by Charles Edward Russell in Everybody’s Magazine; Ida Tarbell had a series of critical articles about oil, which was most of the time about the Standard Oil Company. No one was safe. The practices of built-up political machines that stole votes were exposed by Lincoln Steffens.  One Muckraker, Jacob Riis, would take photos and write on poverty, disease and crime that occurred. They would be influenced by Jacob Riis’s book the Other Half Live. The Muckrakers’ articles were eventually put into a book called, The Shame of The Cities.