Muckrakers

A fascinating history of the rise and fall of influential Gilded Age magazine McClure's and the two unlikely outsiders at its helm—as well as a timely, full-throated defense of investigative journalism in America

Muckrakers — a term coined in 1906 by President Theodore Roosevelt — referred to American journalists, novelists and critics who, in the early 20th century, attempted to expose corruption in politics and the abuses of big business. One publication spearheading these exposés was McClures Magazine, and Ida Tarbell was the writer whose dramatic revelations eventually lead to effective regulation of the Standard Oil Company.