Instant Access To 100,000+ Essays!

During the late 1800s and early 1900s American journalists began to use new styles and techniques in their writing. Considering explotation, abuse, corruption and misconduct in business and politics, these journalists created a form of writing to expose certain deviations. Most literature of this kind was fictitious but still based upon fact. President Theodore Roosevelt coined this style of journalism ''muckraking'', therefore leaving the authors known as ''muckrakers''. Roosevelt chose this name because the writers had such a gift for digging up corruption or dirt on the deviators. Upton Sinclair, a journalist from California, pioneered mucraking in his journalism. He was interested in social reform and industrial reform, and expressed it through his writings. The Jungle, published in 1906, was one of Sinclair's most popular novels and a perfect example of muckraking. Sinclair's novel took place in the stockyards of Chicago in the early 1900s. He wrote the story using a Lithuanian protagonist who was introduced to the corruption and dirt of the businesses of the capitalist society first hand. Sinclair