Who were the muckrakers

In the early twentieth century, a new generation of journalists and writers began to write newspaper and magazine articles exposing corruption in American business and government. These journalists greatly encouraged Americans' support for progressive reform. Theodore Roosevelt dubbed these writers muckrakers because they dredged up some of the dirty practices of corporations and politicians. Perhaps the most famous of these muckraking accounts was Upton Sinclair's novel, The Jungle (1906), which exposed some of the unsanitary practices of the meat-packing industry in Chicago. Sinclair's novel so horrified Americans that the federal government passed the Meat Inspection Act and the Pure Food and Drug Act in 1906. Under these acts, inspectors oversaw the quality of meat and required labels on foods detailing their ingredients. Other famous examples of muckraking include Ida Tarbell's History of Standard Oil, Lincoln Steffens's The Shame of the Cities, and David Phillips's The Treason of the Senate.