The term "muckraker" was used by America's 26th president, Theodore Roosevelt.
In the United States, muckrakers were the name for writers whose aim was to expose corruption: i.e., to search for and expose misconduct in public life.
In chronological order:
- 1908 - Ray Stannard Baker "Following the Color Line," written to expose racial discrimination.
Biographical
Facts About each
of these four figures.
(1)
Ray Stannard Baker (1870–1946) — Following
the Color Line
(1908)
Pen name / alternative persona:
Baker published essays and rural life sketches under the pseudonym David
Grayson.
(Encyclopedia.com)
Origins
& early life:
Although born in Lansing, Michigan, his family moved when he was young to Wisconsin (St. Croix Falls), where his boyhood experiences shaped much of his later pastoral writing. (Wisconsin Historical Society)
Career shift from law to journalism:
Baker briefly attended law school at the University of Michigan but left after a semester to begin work in journalism (starting in Chicago).
(EBSCO)
Muckraker
/ Progressive journalist:
He joined McClure’s
Magazine in 1898
and contributed to muckraking investigations (e.g., railroads,
corporate abuses) before cofounding The
American Magazine in 1906. (Encyclopedia.com)
Wilson biographer & award:
Later in life, Baker became the authorized biographer of President
Woodrow Wilson; his eight-volume Woodrow
Wilson: Life and Letters
(1927–1939) earned the Pulitzer Prize in 1940 (for its final volumes). (Encyclopedia Britannica)
Context
of Following
the Color Line
(1908): In 1908, Baker published Following
the Color Line: An Account of Negro Citizenship in the American
Democracy, one of
the first major journalistic probes into racial conditions in the
United States, exploring segregation, disenfranchisement, and social
obstacles faced by African Americans. (Encyclopedia Britannica)
(2)
David
Graham Phillips (1867–1911) — The
Treason of the Senate
(1906)
Early life & education:
Phillips was born in Madison, Indiana, and graduated from Princeton
University in 1887. (archives-manuscripts.dartmouth.edu)
Journalistic beginnings: He worked as a reporter in Cincinnati and then in New York (for The
Sun and New
York World) before turning to independent journalism and fiction. (Encyclopedia Britannica)
Novelist
& journalist hybrid:
Phillips published The
Great God Success
(1901), which enabled him to fund his investigative journalism full-time; he blended narrative techniques with reportage in many of his works. (Wikipedia)
“Treason of the Senate” series and impact:
Beginning in March 1906, Phillips published a nine-part series, “The Treason of the Senate” in
Cosmopolitan,
charging that many U.S. Senators were beholden to corporate interests rather than the people. This series helped fuel public pressure that contributed to the eventual adoption of the 17th
Amendment (popular election of senators). (Encyclopedia Britannica)
Tragic death: On
January 23, 1911, Phillips was walking in Gramercy Park, New York,
when he was shot six times by a man (Fitzhugh Coyle Goldsborough)
who claimed Phillips had libeled his family in a novel. He died the next day. (Wikipedia)
(3)
Ida Tarbell (1857–1944) & Thomas W. Lawson — Frenzied
Finance (1904/1905)
Since
this entry involves two
collaborators (Tarbell and Lawson), I’ll offer a few facts about
each (combined enough to total ~5), but with emphasis on their
collaborative or contemporaneous roles.
Scientific training & method:
As a young woman, Tarbell was drawn to the sciences (especially geology and botany); she applied scientific rigor and method to her investigative journalism. (PBS)
Pioneer of investigative journalism:
Her History of the
Standard Oil Company
(1904) is considered a landmark in the muckraking tradition,
exposing John D. Rockefeller’s business methods and influencing antitrust litigation. (PBS)
Constraints as a woman journalist:
In a time when women had limited professional outlets, Tarbell’s success in magazine journalism (e.g., McClure’s)
was especially notable and paved the way for female investigative writers. (PBS)
Long career in writing and biography:
Beyond Standard Oil,
Tarbell wrote biographies (e.g. of Abraham Lincoln) and continued in journalism and lecturing. (PBS)
(3a)
Thomas W. Lawson
Insider turned exposer:
Lawson was a Boston financier and stock speculator who used his knowledge of the markets to publish a sensational series titled
“Frenzied Finance”
(in Everybody’s
Magazine, 1904–05)
that revealed manipulation, speculation abuses, and corrupt financial practices. (Academic Dictionaries and Encyclopedias)
(Bonus)
Role in muckraking movement:
His financial exposés complemented those of journalistic muckrakers by revealing fraud from within finance, lending insider credibility to critiques of Wall Street. (Academic Dictionaries and Encyclopedias)
Context
of Frenzied
Finance: In Frenzied
Finance, Lawson
exposed shady practices in the stock and insurance markets,
speculative bubbles, stock manipulations, and conflicts of interest
in financial houses—thus helping to popularize public skepticism of
unregulated markets. (AcademicDictionaries and Encyclopedias)
(4) Charles
Edward Russell (1860–1941) — social dislocation/exposures
(circa 1905)
Editorial lineage & early work:
Russell was born in Davenport, Iowa (Sept. 25, 1860), son of the editor of the Davenport
Gazette; he learned newspaper work under his father. (Encyclopedia.com)
Muckraker reputation / major exposé:
In 1905, he published The
Greatest Trust in the World,
a scathing exposé of the beef (meatpacking) trust (Chicago) that was influential in Progressive Era reforms. (Encyclopedia Britannica)
Diverse reform interests:
Russell’s writings spanned a wide range of social concerns—slum housing (including exposing church owned slums in New York),
prison conditions in the South, railroad abuses, and inequality.
(Encyclopedia.com)
Political activism & socialism:
He joined the Socialist Party in 1908, saw socialism (despite his limited theoretical grounding) as a challenge to concentrated corporate power. (EBSCO)
Later career and public roles:
Russell wrote biographies, novels, poetry, and diplomatic commentary. He ran (unsuccessfully) for New York political office
(governor, senator, mayor) on the Socialist ticket, and during WWI
supported U.S. entry (leading to his expulsion from the Socialist
Party). (Encyclopedia.com)
On
“social dislocation” themes:
Russell’s journalism often focused on the dislocations caused by
industrial capitalism—how workers, farmers, and urban dwellers were
uprooted, exploited, or marginalized by corporate consolidation and
monopolies. His exposition of the Beef Trust and his critiques of
institutional corruption speak directly to those social stresses.
(Encyclopedia Britannica)
BIBLIOGRAPHY:
Worthy of honorable mention:
- Ida Minvera Tarbell (1857 - 1944), U.S. journalist, known for "muckraking" exposés of political and corporate corruption; also a biographer, notably of Abraham Lincoln; and the only lady in the bunch!
Ida M. Tarbell, American "muckraker" author.
(Photo credit: Wikipedia)
***
More Presidential Trivia:
-
American presidents, (Thomas) Woodrow Wilson and Theodore Roosevelt, were Nobel Prize winners. In 1906, Roosevelt received the award for being a mediator and arbitrating an end to the Russo-Japanese conflict; there was a dispute over Manchuria and Korea. Wilson received the prize in 1919 for establishing the League of Nations after World War I (1914 - 1918).
The "teddy bear" is named after Roosevelt's nickname Teddy because he went hunting and didn't want to shoot a baby cub. Many people think a teddy bear with roses is an irresistible gift for Valentines Day?
* * *
