1. Today’s AIM:
How did muckrakers shed light on and work to reform American society during the Progressive Era?

2. Someone who searches for and exposes corruption or scandals.
Lesson Vocabulary
a) What is a muckraker?
Someone who searches for and
exposes corruption or scandals.
b) What does progressive mean?
To change, improve, or reform.
c) What is a tenement?
A run-down, overcrowded apartment,

3. What issues do we see in our cities TODAY?

4. What were cities like in the Industrial Age?
Child Labor
Women being paid half as much as men
Long work hours
Dangerous working conditions
Unfair business practices (ROBBER BARONS!)
Conflicts between immigrants and Americans
Unsanitary tenements (apartments)
Tainted (harmful/infected) meat
Poverty

5. Engineering innovations, such as expansive bridges and skyscrapers, led to modern American cities
Cities expanded outward from industrial centers in the central business districts to a ring of outer suburbs
As cities grew larger and beyond walking distance, trolley lines, elevated rail lines, and subways were created

6. Urban Problems
BUT, most American cities were not prepared for such rapid population growth
Housing: Overcrowded TENEMENTS were un-healthy places to live.
Sanitation: Often, garbage was not collected and polluted the air.
Famous photographer Jacob Riis captured the struggle of living in crowded tenements

7. Dumbbell Tenement
More apartments for more families and shared restrooms.
These tenements were fire hazards, filled with waste and diseases.

8. The Tenement Question--Inside and Out!
Many urban poor developed lung disease or tuberculosis; About 60% of immigrant babies died before their first birthday
The Tenement Question--Inside and Out!
Many city dwellers, especially immigrants, typically lived in tenements that were crowded and unsanitary.

13. About 2/3 of immigrants settled in cities, such as New York, Chicago, Boston, or Philadelphia and lived in ethnic neighborhoods called ghettos
Why might new immigrants to America concentrate into ethnic communities (with people of the same ethnicity)?
Ghettos provided new immigrants with a sense of community and security, as the immigrants were surrounded by the familiar customs, food and language of their homeland

14. NYC Jewish ghetto

15. Chinatown
San Francisco
Los Angeles
New York City

16. Hester Street

17. Mulberry Street/“Little Italy”

18. Transportation: Cities struggled to provide adequate transit systems.
Water: Without safe drinking water cholera and typhoid fever were common.
Crime: As populations increased thieves flourished.
Fire: Limited water, wooden structures, and the use of candles led to many major urban fires.
Harper’s Weekly image of Chicagoans fleeing the fire over the Randolph Street bridge in 1871
Chicago 1871 and San Francisco 1906 were two major fires.

20. Who were the muckrakers?
Journalists who wrote about or photographed problems in society.
Wanted to “stir the muck” so people noticed it.
Used newspaper and magazine articles, books, music, poetry and photography to get people to pay attention.

21. Upton Sinclair VIDEO The Jungle
Exposed what conditions were like in meat packing industry
Tried to get people mad at terrible working conditions but people more disgusted at lack of food regulations
Sinclair is quoted as saying, “I aimed at their brains and hit them in the stomach.”
While you listen:
What was Sinclair trying to expose?
VIDEO

22. REGENTS Practice During the Progressive Era, muckrakers
published articles and novels primarily to
Advance their own political careers.
Make Americans aware of problems
in society.
(3) Help the federal government become
more efficient.
(4) Provide entertainment for readers.

23. Jacob Riis Author of the book: “How the Other Half Lives” (excerpt)
Included pictures
and stories of urban
problems

24. Lincoln Steffens Author of the book: “The Shame of the Cities”
Included stories of
Urban problems and
political corruption

25. Ida Tarbell Author of a series of magazine articles:
“A history of the Standard
Oil Company” (excerpt)
Exposed the wrongful
practices of the oil
monopoly and its destruction
of small businesses

26. Frank Norris Author of the book: “The Octopus” Exposed the
ruthless practices
of the monopolies

27. Political Corruption How does the clip from “Gangs of New York” depict problems and political corruption? (answer in writing as you watch)