Stories that Changed America: Muckrakers of the 20th Century

by Carl Jensen, Carl Bernstein (Contribution by), Rachel Carson (Contribution by)

Exuberantly written, highly informative, Jensen's Stories That Changed America examines the work of twenty-one investigative writers, and how their efforts forever changed our country. Here are the pioneering muckrakers, like Upton Sinclair, author of the fact-based novel The Jungle, that inspired Theodore Roosevelt to sign the Pure Food and Drug Act into law; "Queen of the Muckrakers" Ida Mae Tarbell, whose McClure magazine exposés led to the dissolution of Standard Oil's monopoly; and Lincoln Steffens, a reporter who unearthed corruption in both municipal and federal governments.
You'll also meet Margaret Sanger, the former nurse who coined the term "birth control"; George Seldes, the most censored journalist in American history; Nobel Prize-winning novelist John Steinbeck; environmentalist Rachel Carson; National Organization of Women founder Betty Friedan; African American activist Malcolm X; consumer advocate Ralph Nader; and Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein, the Pulitzer Prize-winning reporters whose Watergate break-in coverage brought down President Richard Nixon.
The courageous writers Jensen includes in this deftly researched volume dedicated their lives to fight for social, civil, political and environmental rights with their mighty pens.

Genres: History, Journalism

272 pages, Paperback

First published August 1, 2000

Reviews

[Eddie Bryant · Rating 4 out of 5]

If you enjoy investigative journalism this book will fill the bill nicely. The editor curates 20 stories from the 20th century (21 authors as Woodward and Bernstein are both profiled). It's hard to criticize the book as Jensen allows the original authors to speak for themselves. Among the selections in the book are "The Jungle" by Upton Sinclair, Ida Mae Tarbell on "The History of the Standard Oil Company", Seymour Hersh writing on the My Lai Massacre, and John Steinbeck's "The Grapes of Wrath."

The gold to be found here is in the chapter intros which include an author bio and background information on the selected piece that puts the writing into context. There is much to learn from these short sections.

There are entries from Jessica Mitford, Margaret Sanger, Betty Friedan, Malcolm X, George Seldes, and many others.

One is impressed that the stories that changed America in the 20th century are still impacting the world in which we live today. Environmentalism, greed, political corruption, overpopulation, food safety, and racism.

This book is a short read and an excellent jumping off point if you're not well versed in the stories of the 1900s.

[Zane · Rating 3 out of 5]

I picked this up at the library and read chapters that were interesting to me this afternoon. It is a decent survey, but maybe attempts to cover to broad of a time-span to be useful for much. The introductions to each excerpt tend to be about as long as the excerpt itself, which could be good or bad depending on what you are looking for. I like books like this, because they sometimes help me find whole books I want to read. There was a reader on literature of the great depression that was really good and organized like this, but I think this book would be better if it was more focused on a particular era, smaller than the 20th century.

[severyn · Rating 1 out of 5]

Mmm, so this is an interesting topic: journalists and writers who've made some kind of difference through their writing; but the format of the book: potted biography of + excerpts from 16 'muckrakers' counts against the material: the biographies are too potted and the excerpts have little power out of context.
Also, I'm colon-happy again, but there's no connection.