Muckrakers

Subject of Shame of the Cities

• Political corruption in big cities

• Haphazard practices in Chicago meat packing plants

• Abuses of the railroad company on farmers

• Problems faced by people living in the cities such as poverty

Subject of History of the Standard Oil Company

• Haphazard working conditions in a Chicago meat packing plant such as rodents running around the factory

• Poor treatment of farmers by the railroad company which stole their land to expand

• Documented John D. Rockefeller's rise to power, focusing on his lack of ethics which harmed his workers

• Poor living conditions faced by those living in urban areas

Subject of The Octopus

• Haphazard conditions of the Chicago meat packing factories that allowed water to drip on meat

• Focused on the injustices at the fault of the railroad company on farmers. It covered an event between ranchers and the railroad that turned bloody

• The problems facing the urban poor, like poor living conditions

• Political corruption in the cities were politicians focused more on their own profits than governing.

Legislation enacted as a result of the "The Jungle"

• Pure Food & Drug Act

• Tenement Housing Act

• 17th Amendment

• 21st Amendment

Legislation enacted as a result of "How the Other Half Lives

• Pure Food & Drug Act

• Tenement Housing Act

• 17th Amendment

• 18th Amendment

Wrote “History of the Standard Oil Company,” in 1902. Showed how Rockefeller’s rise was based on ruthless business practices. 

• Ida B. Wells 
• Ida Tarbell 
• Susan B. Anthony 
• Elizabeth Cady Stanton 

Photographed conditions of the urban poor in “How the Other Half Lives.” Examined the conditions of the poor in America’s cities. 

• Upton Sinclair 
• Lincoln Steffens 
• Jacob Riis 
• Frank Norris 

One reason Jacob Riis published many photographs similar to this was to

• disprove claims of yellow journalists

• encourage government assistance for poor farmers

• promote the use of child labor

• increase public concern over tenement conditions

The term muckraker was used during the Progressive Era to describe

• dissatisfied workers who went on strike

• Northerners who went South following the Civil War

• investigative journalists who exposed societal problems

• women who supported the Prohibition movement

Which Progressive Era muckraker’s book led to the passage of the Meat Inspection Act?

• Jacob Riis’s How the Other Half Lives

• Lincoln Steffens’s The Shame of the Cities

• Upton Sinclair’s The Jungle

• Frank Norris’s The Octopus