Muckraking: Three Landmark Articles

Rating:
Summary: A great look back at investigative journalism
Review: This edition contains (as its title suggests), three landmark articles that were all published in Mc Clure's magazine in January 1903. The articles, "The Oil War of 1872" by Ida M. Tarbell; "The Shame of Minneapolis" by Lincoln Steffens; and "The Right To Work" by Ray Stannard Baker are indeed rare to find collected in one volume. Thankfully, for students of journalism and history they are collected here.

When looking at all three articles, they might seem to a 21st century reader as a little flat and not all that shocking or sensational. However, if one looks back at some of the hokey pablum that many papers and magazines employed, these articles were nothing short of a bombshell. Some of the journalism of that era smacked of boosterism or partisan sentiment, but these articles were indeed beholden to none but the truth (or as close to that moving target as you can get).

The introduction and essays that accompany these pieces do a good job of providing the reader with information about the writers. The essays also help put the events of the early 20th century into context. It is safe to say that while these essays are not necessarily flashy or earth-shattering in their conclusions, they are solid, helpful material that only give the reader a deeper appreciation for the term "muckraking."