Ida Tarbell the Muckraker: Digging up the Dirt Essay -- Essays Papers

Ida Tarbell the Muckraker: Digging up the Dirt During the late 1800's and early 1900's, change in American society was very evident in the economy. An extraordinary expansion of the industrial economy was taking place, presenting new forms of business organization and bringing trusts and holding companies into the national picture. The turn of the century is known as the "Great Merger Movement:" over two thousand corporations were "swallowed up" by one hundred and fifty giant holding companies.1 This powerful change in industry brought about controversy and was a source of social anxiety. How were people to deal with this great movement and understand the reasons behind the new advancements? Through the use of propaganda, the public was enlightened and the trusts were attacked. Muckraking, a term categorizing this type of journalism, began in 1903 and lasted until 1912. It uncovered the dirt of trusts and accurately voiced the public's alarm of this new form of industrial control. Ida Tarbell, a known muckraker, spearheaded this popular investigative movement.2 As a journalist, she produced one of the most detailed examinations of a monopolistic trust, The Standard Oil Company.3 Taking on a difficult responsibility and using her unique journalistic skills, Ida Tarbell was able to get to the bottom of a scheme that allowed the oil industry to be manipulated by a single man, John D. Rockefeller. Being a conscientious journalist, Ida Tarbell is known for the inauguration of muckraking. President Theodore Roosevelt had given the term ‘muckraking’ to this type of investigative journalism done by Ida Tarbell. Roosevelt did not fully support her work because of its "focus and tone." The President got this name from a c... ...s Press, 1994), 4. 2. Kathleen Brady, Ida Tarbell, Portrait of a Muckraker (New York: Seaview/Putnam, 1984), 140. 3. Ida M. Tarbell. "The History of the Standard Oil Company." 1904. Available [online]: http://www.history.rochester.edu/fuels/tarbell/MAIN.HTM. (15 February 2000). 4. Fitzpatrick, 2. 5. Mary E. Tomkins, Ida M. Tarbell (New York: Twayne Publishers, Inc, 1974), 15. 6. Brady, 136. 7. Tomkins, 15. 8. Brady, 121-124. 9. Brady, 133. 10. Fitzpatrick, 60-70. 11. Tarbell 12. Tomkins, 65. 13. Fitzpatrick, 77-79. 14. Tomkins, 59-65. 15. Tarbell 16. Tomkins, 66. 17. Lowrie, Arthur L. "Ida M. Tarbell: Investigative Journalist Par Excellence." 1997. Available [online]: http://merlin.alleg.edu/hmccell/tarbell/biobib.html (15 February 2000). 18. Brady, 160. 19. Lowrie