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Muckrakers and Social Challenges at the Turn of the Century

At the turn of the 20th century, muckrakers emerged as influential journalists exposing social, political, and environmental issues in the rapidly industrializing United States. Urbanization led to overcrowded slum tenements, while factory working conditions were often dangerous and unregulated. Political corruption thrived through machines like Tammany Hall, exacerbating wealth inequality, particularly affecting African Americans and women. The era also witnessed the rise of reform movements such as temperance. These challenges reflected the complexities of a society transitioning into a new modern age.

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Muckrakers and Social Challenges at the Turn of the Century

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  1. Chapter 16 Notes Problems at the Turn of the Century

  2. Muckrakers • muckraker: a journalist who wrote about social, environmental, and political problems Americans faced in the early 1900s • Teddy Roosevelt gave them the name because “"raked the mud of society.“

  3. State of the Union 1900 • Rise of industry = rise of urbanization: the growth of cities- Drawn in by jobs and amusements • U.S. becoming an urban, industrial society with an increasingly diverse population • Mechanization = more production • More production= new methods of selling goods • Montgomery Ward and other catalogs • Department Stores

  4. Poor Living Conditions • People lived in slum tenements • New York's Lower East Side, for example, housed 450,000 people in 1900. =than 300,000 people per square mile. • Poor living conditions because of poor infrastructure: the facilities or equipment required for an organization or community to function, including roads, sewage and power systems, and transportation • Lack of fire protection and sanitation

  5. Poor Working Conditions • Factory work boring, strenuous, and dangerous • Unsafe products • No Gov. regulations • Meat- the Jungle • Medicine- Coca Cola

  6. Problems with the Environment • Reduction of Natural Resources • Ranching, farming, logging • extractive industries: businesses that take mineral resources from the earth • Coal, oil, etc. • Pollution • Factories, animal waste, household sewage

  7. Problems in Politics • political machines: an organization consisting of full-time politicians whose main goal was to retain political power and the money and influence that went with it • Tammany Hall: a political machine in New York City- Boss William Tweed • patronage: the practice of politicians giving jobs to friends and supporters • Rigged elections, money from entertainment, helped people for votes, Corruption • Pendelton Act-an 1883 federal law that limited patronage by creating a civil service commission to administer exams for certain nonmilitary government jobs

  8. Social Problems • During the late 1800s, the gap between rich and poor grew wider • African Americans • Not many gains since civil war • Found ways to not allow them to vote • Many moved North • Women • Worked outside the home • Attended college • Families • Public education expanded but many can’t go b/c need children to work • temperance movement: a reform movement calling for moderation in drinking alcohol- Seen as way to improve family life

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