Many literary minds of the late 1800's began to consider the corruption and exploitation involving large companies. Naturally, they put their talents to work, most often using fiction based on fact, but sometimes writing straight documentaries. The term "Muckrakers" was coined by Theodore Roosevelt in reference to their ability to uncover "dirt."

Miss Ida Tarbell had been at work for years on her history of the Standard Oil Company, and it began to run in McClure's in November 1902.

Lincoln Steffen's first novel on municipal corruption, "Tweed Days in St. Louis" appeared in McClure's Oct 1902.

Henry Demerest Lloyd's Wealth Against Commonwealth, published in 1894, attacked the Standard Oil Company.

How the Other Half Lives, published in 1890 by Jacob Riis, exposed life in New York's slums.

John Spargo, an englishman, published The Bitter Cry of the Children, an account of young kids at work in sweatshops.

Perhaps the most famous Muckraking novel, The Jungle by Upton Sinclair, exposed the horrors of the Chicago meat-packing plants and the immigrants who were worked to death in them.

Go to thenext page.