1. The Problems at the Turn of the Century (1900)
Know the effects of industrialization on living and working conditions, including the portrayal of working conditions and food safety in Upton Sinclair's The Jungle.
Analyze the effect of urban political machines and responses to them by immigrants and middle-class reformers.

2. Upton Sinclair’s The Jungle (1906)
“There was never the least attention paid to what was cut up for sausage; there would come all the way back from Europe old sausage that had been rejected, and that was mouldy and white—it would be dosed with borax and glycerine, and dumped into the hoppers, and made over again for home consumption. There would be meat that had tumbled out on the floor, in the dirt and sawdust, where the workers had tramped and spit uncounted billions of consumption germs. There would be meat stored in great piles in rooms; and the water from leaky roofs would drip over it, and thousands of rats would race about on it.”

3. Upton Sinclair
The “muckrakers”—a group of journalists (writers) who uncovered the nation’s problems.
First investigative journalists

4. Political Machines and Bosses
Problem with corruption—bribes, scandals
Political machines—organizations of politicians who controlled city government
Political boss—at the top of this corrupt structure
Example: New York’s Tammany Hall—run by William “Boss” Tweed
Gain power by helping immigrants; gain their votes by giving jobs and food

5. National Corruption State legislators bribed to elect senators
Politicians receive campaign money from big business (monopolies!)

6. You are the muckraker:
You must investigate a turn-of-the-century problem.
Write down:
1. Your newspaper headline to expose this issue to the public
2. Your 2 key points for your article
3. A sketch of the photo that goes with your problem

7. Other muckrakers Ida Tarbell—investigated Rockefeller’s Standard Oil
Led to break up of Standard Oil under the Sherman Anti-Trust Act (1911)

8. Life for African Americans
Cities divided by ethnicity and social class
African American—leave South to get away from segregation and Jim Crow laws
By 1900 most had been disenfranchised (couldn’t vote)
Lynchings frequent