Question

Evaluate: How effective do you think the muckrakers were in helping reform Ameri- can society?

Answer 1

The muckrakers used the printed word (articles and books primarily) to draw attention to systemic abuses in American society during the Gilded Age (1877-1895). Writers such as Lincoln Steffens, The Shame of the Cities; Ida Tarbell, History of Standard Oil; and Upton Sinclair, The Jungle exposed abuses in urban life, monopolistic practices in business and the meatpacking industry. These works laid the groundwork for the reforms of the Progressive Era (1895-1920).

Populists fought monopolistic practices by railroads and producers in the West by championing cooperative enterprise among farmers. The Progressives did much the same in relationship to challenging unfair practices in urban areas and in factories. They like their Populist counterparts launched political movements at the local, state and federal level to enact laws favorable to their positions.  

Suffrage at the national level was the culmination of more than sixty years of struggle by American women to achieve basic rights in American society. Women achieved success at the state level in a piecemeal way and finally obtained federal legislation in the form of the 19th Amendment, which was ratified in 1920.