USA HISTORY

Detailed explanation-1: -Muckrakers were journalists and novelists of the Progressive Era who sought to expose corruption in big business and government.

Detailed explanation-2: -Upton Sinclair was a famous novelist and social crusader from California, who pioneered the kind of journalism known as “muckraking.” His best-known novel was “The Jungle” which was an expose of the appalling and unsanitary conditions in the meat-packing industry.

Detailed explanation-3: -Lincoln Steffens, Ray Stannard Baker, and Ida M. Tarbell are considered to have been the first muckrakers, when they wrote articles on municipal government, labour, and trusts in the January 1903 issue of McClure’s Magazine.

Detailed explanation-4: -Upton Sinclair wrote The Jungle to expose the appalling working conditions in the meat-packing industry. His description of diseased, rotten, and contaminated meat shocked the public and led to new federal food safety laws.

Detailed explanation-5: -Overview. Muckrakers were investigative journalists during the Progressive Era (1890s–1920s) who shone a light on corrupt business and government leaders as well as major social problems like racism. Ida B. Wells wrote graphically about the horrors of lynching in the South.