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Citizen Reporters: S.S. McClure, Ida Tarbell, and the Magazine That Rewrote America – The Biography of Gilded Age Muckraking and Defending Democracy
A fascinating history of the rise and fall of influential Gilded Age magazine McClure’s and the two unlikely outsiders at its helm—as well as a timely, full-throated defense of investigative journalism in America The president of the United States made headlines around the world when he publicly attacked the press, denouncing reporters who threatened his reputation as “muckrakers” and “forces for evil.” The year was 1906, the president was Theodore Roosevelt—and the publication that provoked his fury was McClure’s magazine.
One of the most influential magazines in American history, McClure’s drew over 400,000 readers and published the groundbreaking stories that defined the Gilded Age, including the investigation of Standard Oil that toppled the Rockefeller monopoly. Driving this revolutionary publication were two improbable newcomers united by single-minded ambition. S. S. McClure was an Irish immigrant, who, despite bouts of mania, overthrew his impoverished upbringing and bent the New York media world to his will. His steadying hand and star reporter was Ida Tarbell, a woman who defied gender expectations and became a notoriously fearless journalist. The scrappy, bold McClure's group—Tarbell, McClure, and their reporters Ray Stannard Baker and Lincoln Steffens—cemented investigative journalism’s crucial role in democracy. From reporting on labor unrest and lynching, to their exposés of municipal corruption, their reporting brought their readers face to face with a nation mired in dysfunction. They also introduced Americans to the voices of Willa Cather, Arthur Conan Doyle, Robert Louis Stevenson, Joseph Conrad, and many others. Tracing McClure’s from its meteoric rise to its spectacularly swift and dramatic combustion, Citizen Reporters is a thrillingly told, deeply researched biography of a powerhouse magazine that forever changed American life. It’s also a timely case study that demonstrates the crucial importance of journalists who are unafraid to speak truth to power.
One of the most influential magazines in American history, McClure’s drew over 400,000 readers and published the groundbreaking stories that defined the Gilded Age, including the investigation of Standard Oil that toppled the Rockefeller monopoly. Driving this revolutionary publication were two improbable newcomers united by single-minded ambition. S. S. McClure was an Irish immigrant, who, despite bouts of mania, overthrew his impoverished upbringing and bent the New York media world to his will. His steadying hand and star reporter was Ida Tarbell, a woman who defied gender expectations and became a notoriously fearless journalist. The scrappy, bold McClure's group—Tarbell, McClure, and their reporters Ray Stannard Baker and Lincoln Steffens—cemented investigative journalism’s crucial role in democracy. From reporting on labor unrest and lynching, to their exposés of municipal corruption, their reporting brought their readers face to face with a nation mired in dysfunction. They also introduced Americans to the voices of Willa Cather, Arthur Conan Doyle, Robert Louis Stevenson, Joseph Conrad, and many others. Tracing McClure’s from its meteoric rise to its spectacularly swift and dramatic combustion, Citizen Reporters is a thrillingly told, deeply researched biography of a powerhouse magazine that forever changed American life. It’s also a timely case study that demonstrates the crucial importance of journalists who are unafraid to speak truth to power.
384 pages, Hardcover
First published February 18, 2020
68 people are currently reading
2032 people want to read
About the author
Stephanie Gorton
2 books63 followersStephanie Gorton wrote "The Icon and the Idealist: Margaret Sanger, Mary Ware Dennett, and the Rivalry that Brought Birth Control to America" (2024), which won the ASJA Award for Biography/History, was a finalist for the Plutarch Award for biography, and was longlisted for the Brooklyn Public Library Book Prize. Her first book was "Citizen Reporters: S. S. McClure, Ida Tarbell, and the Magazine that Rewrote America" (2020), a finalist for the Sperber Prize for journalism biography.
Previously, she held editorial roles at Canongate Books, The Overlook Press, and Open Road, and fellowships with the Logan Nonfiction Program at the Carey Institute for Global Good and the Massachusetts Historical Society. She has guest-taught at institutions including NYU, Northeastern, and Goucher College, and been a guest speaker at the Southern Festival of Books, WAWA Welcome America Festival, Brandeis Book & Author Festival, and Women’s Bar Association of Massachusetts. Her work has been published in The New Yorker, Boston Globe, and Smithsonian, among other publications, and she has appeared on radio shows including On Point and Slate Political Gabfest.
Lebanese American by birth, she lives in Providence, Rhode Island.
Previously, she held editorial roles at Canongate Books, The Overlook Press, and Open Road, and fellowships with the Logan Nonfiction Program at the Carey Institute for Global Good and the Massachusetts Historical Society. She has guest-taught at institutions including NYU, Northeastern, and Goucher College, and been a guest speaker at the Southern Festival of Books, WAWA Welcome America Festival, Brandeis Book & Author Festival, and Women’s Bar Association of Massachusetts. Her work has been published in The New Yorker, Boston Globe, and Smithsonian, among other publications, and she has appeared on radio shows including On Point and Slate Political Gabfest.
Lebanese American by birth, she lives in Providence, Rhode Island.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 70 reviews
September 3, 2020
Im so far behind on my reviews. Read this a month ago and an surprised how much I remember. A mark, I think, of a truly good book, though this does start out slowly. McClure, a self made man, was on his own from the age of 14. After trying several occupations, ventures, he eventually founded McClures magazine during a time when people mistrusted what they were reading in the newspapers. Sounds familiar doesn't it? He was so scattered though, running off here and there, pursuing people, ideas, burgeoning authors that it wasn't until Ida agreed to work for him, that any type of organization existed.
McClures became a force to be reckoned with. The bane of Teddy's Roosevelt's psyche, exposing mudracking, and publishing new authors. Kipling, Robert Louis Stevenson, Arthur Conan Doyle all published within. Booth Tarkington was discovered in a slush pile. It was Ida's expose on Standard Oil, that made everyone aware of the value of investigative reporting. Though this magazine only lasted ten years, it was a trend setter, a forerunner of journalism today.
McClures became a force to be reckoned with. The bane of Teddy's Roosevelt's psyche, exposing mudracking, and publishing new authors. Kipling, Robert Louis Stevenson, Arthur Conan Doyle all published within. Booth Tarkington was discovered in a slush pile. It was Ida's expose on Standard Oil, that made everyone aware of the value of investigative reporting. Though this magazine only lasted ten years, it was a trend setter, a forerunner of journalism today.
August 16, 2020
Ida Tarbell was one of the great reporters of the 20th century. Her expose on Standard Oil is known to be one of the 5 greatest stories reportedin the 20th century.
McClures Magazine, her home, was one of the great forces for change in America. It rose from nothing to becoming one the best selling magazines of its era.Tarbell, Lincoln Stepphens, and Ray Stannard Baker were 3 of the best know (an in some cases most hated authors in the period.
This story started a little slow, but by the 100th page, it takes off. It quickly becomes a very interesting and fascinating piece. I read the last 180 pages in one sitting because I couldn't put the book down.
McClures Magazine, her home, was one of the great forces for change in America. It rose from nothing to becoming one the best selling magazines of its era.Tarbell, Lincoln Stepphens, and Ray Stannard Baker were 3 of the best know (an in some cases most hated authors in the period.
This story started a little slow, but by the 100th page, it takes off. It quickly becomes a very interesting and fascinating piece. I read the last 180 pages in one sitting because I couldn't put the book down.
April 5, 2020
I loved this book. I enjoyed being transported to the Gilded Age and surrounded by S.S. McClure, Ida Tarbell, Lincoln Steffans, and Ray Stanndard Baker. The book is fast paced and includes great historical context. Highly recommended for anyone interested in the role of investigative journalism during critical times in US history (both the gilded age and today).
March 30, 2020
I loved Gorton's nuanced portrayals of Sam McClure and Ida Tarbell, the book's two main characters. McClure is, well, crazy, but also brilliant at finding and publishing talent. Tarbell, who decided to forego marriage at age 14, would seem a feminist model, yet she didn't support women's suffrage. Along with several other talented journalists, they made McClure's one of the nation's most powerful publications. The magazine's rise and fall makes for a fascinating read.
July 29, 2022
Maggi-Meg Reed is a multiple Audie nominee, Earphones winner, and AudioFile Featured Narrator. Reed's artistic narration, Stephanie Gorton's researched, smart, writing and the charming early 1900's setting made for a solid three star experience.
McClure's Magazine was an American cultural influence from 1893–1929. There were several owners in that stretch, each one varying the content and theme. Gorton details the impact that magazines had on public opinion, in McClure's heyday of about 1900-1906. S.S McClure and Ida Tarbell were go-getter personalities of the time. They sparkle to life in the book.
I even went online and read some of the original articles from 120 year old magazines.
McClure's Magazine was an American cultural influence from 1893–1929. There were several owners in that stretch, each one varying the content and theme. Gorton details the impact that magazines had on public opinion, in McClure's heyday of about 1900-1906. S.S McClure and Ida Tarbell were go-getter personalities of the time. They sparkle to life in the book.
I even went online and read some of the original articles from 120 year old magazines.
August 16, 2020
Stephanie Gorton blends several bios of various main players at McClure magazine, focusing on the bios of S S McClure and his best what we would call minder and his best mudraker Ida Tarbell. The individual power and stamina of McClure and Tarbell rise and fall with the rise and decline of the magazine.
In a time when print media was information king, McClure's stood because of the wide variety of stories and articles printed here.
•Serial Writing of U.S. American and British greats, including Arthur Conan Doyle, Mark Twain, Willa Cather, and Rudyard Kipling.
•Political Exposé Writing
•Mukraking
This is an insightful and in no way great group biography.
In a time when print media was information king, McClure's stood because of the wide variety of stories and articles printed here.
•Serial Writing of U.S. American and British greats, including Arthur Conan Doyle, Mark Twain, Willa Cather, and Rudyard Kipling.
•Political Exposé Writing
•Mukraking
This is an insightful and in no way great group biography.
September 10, 2021
While Doris Kearns Goodwin's Bully Pulpit focused on T. Roosevelt and W.H. Taft she also touched on the influence of McClure's Magazine and the "muckraking" journalists whose investigative reporting in the 1890s - 1910s ushered in what she termed the "golden age of journalism."
In Stephanie Gorton's Citizen Reporters, the presidents and politicians take a back seat and the journalists take over, most notably erratic manic depressive publisher S. S. McClure and brilliant independent journalist Ida Tarbell whose expose of Standard Oil is still considered one of the most exemplary pieces of journalism ever published. Other, lesser but still outstanding reporters included Ray Stannard Baker, Lincoln Steffens, and other noteworthy figures.
I found the portraits of McClure and Tarbell and their stormy relationship to be most interesting. He financed the enterprise and gave her rein to create the job of staff writer employed by the magazine as opposed to a free lancer. She acted as a steadying influence when he had manic episodes and flagrant affairs. Gorton did not tell us enough for me about the magazine's exposes and findings. We know their subjects included monopolies, Standard Oil, the railroads, Jim Crow laws, and lynchings but not much about the content of these stories or their effect aside from the fact that Tarbell's series led to the break up of Standard Oil and other reports annoyed T. R.
In Stephanie Gorton's Citizen Reporters, the presidents and politicians take a back seat and the journalists take over, most notably erratic manic depressive publisher S. S. McClure and brilliant independent journalist Ida Tarbell whose expose of Standard Oil is still considered one of the most exemplary pieces of journalism ever published. Other, lesser but still outstanding reporters included Ray Stannard Baker, Lincoln Steffens, and other noteworthy figures.
I found the portraits of McClure and Tarbell and their stormy relationship to be most interesting. He financed the enterprise and gave her rein to create the job of staff writer employed by the magazine as opposed to a free lancer. She acted as a steadying influence when he had manic episodes and flagrant affairs. Gorton did not tell us enough for me about the magazine's exposes and findings. We know their subjects included monopolies, Standard Oil, the railroads, Jim Crow laws, and lynchings but not much about the content of these stories or their effect aside from the fact that Tarbell's series led to the break up of Standard Oil and other reports annoyed T. R.
February 19, 2020
Compelling narrative nonfiction weaving together the stories of SS McClure and Ida Tarbell and the rise and fall of McClure’s magazine. I really enjoyed how the author shows how McClure, who is mostly a forgotten person in history, had such a deep impact on US literature and reporting. Although it goes deep into this period of the 1890s and 1900s, the prose keeps you engaged in the very interesting lives of the characters.
January 23, 2020
I thought this was fabulous, very unique, timely, and way past time. So often, journalists like Ida Tarbell, Lincoln Steffans, and S. S. McClure come up in other people's bios. (notably Tarbell in every single bio of president Roosevelt and John D. Rockefeller)
Citizen Reporters and Stephanie Gorton finally set the stage with the history of one of the most influential magazines in history. Also, she shares the story of the muckraker's downfall at the hands of Teddy Roosevelt in what I honestly feel was more about TR wanting to be the star instead of anyone else.
S. S, McClure was a unique character and had an uncanny ability not only to spot journalistic talent but to foster it once the reporters were under his wing. I found it amazing that he could often spot the talent when the journalist had only a piece or two published.
The other thing that was different about McClure's magazine was its journalists' ability to really tell the story of something that was wrong or seemed unfair in American society yet not propose a solution. It wasn't like Tarbell pushed for the Sherman Anti=Trust Act after her biography of Standard Oil. In fact, she laid it all out and moved on to the next assignment, just as many of her coworkers did with their investigative reporting.
Finally, as someone with a mental illness, the story of S. S. McClure and his ventures' short success was uplifting if ultimately dashed both professionally and personally.
I flew through this, unlike most non=fiction I read and honestly had a hard time putting it down. It was well past time to share the story of these talented and patriotic journalists and I'm glad that I read it.
Citizen Reporters and Stephanie Gorton finally set the stage with the history of one of the most influential magazines in history. Also, she shares the story of the muckraker's downfall at the hands of Teddy Roosevelt in what I honestly feel was more about TR wanting to be the star instead of anyone else.
S. S, McClure was a unique character and had an uncanny ability not only to spot journalistic talent but to foster it once the reporters were under his wing. I found it amazing that he could often spot the talent when the journalist had only a piece or two published.
The other thing that was different about McClure's magazine was its journalists' ability to really tell the story of something that was wrong or seemed unfair in American society yet not propose a solution. It wasn't like Tarbell pushed for the Sherman Anti=Trust Act after her biography of Standard Oil. In fact, she laid it all out and moved on to the next assignment, just as many of her coworkers did with their investigative reporting.
Finally, as someone with a mental illness, the story of S. S. McClure and his ventures' short success was uplifting if ultimately dashed both professionally and personally.
I flew through this, unlike most non=fiction I read and honestly had a hard time putting it down. It was well past time to share the story of these talented and patriotic journalists and I'm glad that I read it.
February 22, 2020
I really enjoyed the parts of The Bully Pulpit: Theodore Roosevelt, William Howard Taft, and the Golden Age of Journalism by Doris Kearns Goodwin which described McClure's magazine and in particular, Ida Tarbell. So I was delighted to see this book, which covers McClure, the magazine, and Tarbell in great and fascinating detail.
May 5, 2025
Citizen Reporters, about an important and fascinating aspect of American history, starts out quite well with a lively dual biography of magazine publisher S.S. McClure and investigative journalist Ida Tarbell. In the late 19th and early 20th centuries (the Gilded Age and Progressive eras) magazines enjoyed a wide readership among the middle class who were exposed to quality literature and stories about the latest scientific and cultural developments. To this mix McClure added iconic investigative exposes of monopolies such as Standard Oil, widespread municipal corruption, and racial injustice. It’s a story that deserves to be told but several problems with the author’s narrative undermine the book. Foremost she is overly reliant on quotes that are supposed to support her observations but which are frequently enigmatic, opaque, or irritatingly pedestrian. The author’s grasp of historical context seems at times tenuous, especially in the case of Theodore Roosevelt who is depicted in a sketchy and almost cartoonish manner. Her conclusions are also at times risible (even in more puritanical times it is hard to believe that the McClure publishing empire would have collapsed if the public got wind of his occasional dalliances or that magazine readership declined because of primitive nickolodeon movies). Unfortunately Citizen Reporters was a disappointment.
November 23, 2022
While working in my sewing room I listened to Citizen Reporters by Stephanie Gorton, beautifully read by Maggi-Med Reed. I was familiar with McClure and Tarbell from other books. And, for a while I collected old magazines and had some bound issues of McClure’s Magazine.
Citizen Reporters is a history of the reporting that President Teddy Roosevelt decried as ‘muckraking,’ investigative reporting on the bad actions of public figures, big business, and local government. The main actors were magazine magnate S. S. McClure, whose personality and big dreams were both magnetic and his fatal flaw, and his ‘work wife’ and trusted reporter, the intrepid and determined Ida Tarbell.
These fascinating people forged a new kind of journalism, stories that could go deeper than newspaper reports. Tarbell’s most famous work was on Standard Oil’s monopoly, which had ruined her father’s oil business. McClure’s energy and vision brought him to the heights of fame and power. But he was never satisfied with achievement, always longed for more. Tarbell’s ability to keep him corralled eroded over time, his serial affairs and irresponsible push to continually create something new wore her down. The staff that McClure had assembled left his employment.
The story of a visionary businessman’s unbridled drive is so very relevant! Investigative journalism continues to be essential to our democracy. I enjoyed this story as biography, as history, and for its relevance.
I received a free audiobook through Book Perk.
Citizen Reporters is a history of the reporting that President Teddy Roosevelt decried as ‘muckraking,’ investigative reporting on the bad actions of public figures, big business, and local government. The main actors were magazine magnate S. S. McClure, whose personality and big dreams were both magnetic and his fatal flaw, and his ‘work wife’ and trusted reporter, the intrepid and determined Ida Tarbell.
These fascinating people forged a new kind of journalism, stories that could go deeper than newspaper reports. Tarbell’s most famous work was on Standard Oil’s monopoly, which had ruined her father’s oil business. McClure’s energy and vision brought him to the heights of fame and power. But he was never satisfied with achievement, always longed for more. Tarbell’s ability to keep him corralled eroded over time, his serial affairs and irresponsible push to continually create something new wore her down. The staff that McClure had assembled left his employment.
The story of a visionary businessman’s unbridled drive is so very relevant! Investigative journalism continues to be essential to our democracy. I enjoyed this story as biography, as history, and for its relevance.
I received a free audiobook through Book Perk.
April 11, 2023
I just finished a memorable piece of creative nonfiction that anyone interested in, concerned with, or even curious about the spate of train derailments by the Norfolk Southern Railroad...remember East Palestine, Ohio, USA...must read. The book's author, Stephanie Gorton does a masterful job in weaving together the economic history and development of Pennsylvania’s oil industry, with the storied life and accomplishments of one of the western Pennsylvania's most successful authors, Ida Minerva Tarbell. She created investigative journalism before it had a name.
July 24, 2022
This is a fantastic book about a magazine (McClure’s) that had a tremendous effect on the country at the turn of the 20th century. I first became enamored with McClure’s in Doris Kearns Goodwin’s “The Bully Pulpit” and was really excited to see this title emerge in the bookstores. Stephanie Gorton’s book didn’t disappoint as she brings to life the internal workings of the magazine, in particular through the lives of S.S McClure and Ida Tarbell, McClure’s famed journalist. It’s fun to watch how this magazine became so prominent with a mercurial and impassioned founder/leader with a talented staff following him, but also buoying him simultaneously.
The magazine’s prominence was greatly due to its investigative journaling, otherwise known as muckraking. Gorton spends a necessary amount of time detailing Tarbell’s preparation and writing of “The History of Standard Oil” which seems to be the peak of both McClure’s magazine and journalism at that time. The magazine’s relationship with Teddy Roosevelt is certainly discussed in depth, but McClure’s was anything but a means for the president to get his message out; it thrived on asking the difficult questions. Overall, awesome writing on journalism at in the early 20th century, and I’m glad Stephanie Gorton is keeping the name “McClure’s” alive and well.
The magazine’s prominence was greatly due to its investigative journaling, otherwise known as muckraking. Gorton spends a necessary amount of time detailing Tarbell’s preparation and writing of “The History of Standard Oil” which seems to be the peak of both McClure’s magazine and journalism at that time. The magazine’s relationship with Teddy Roosevelt is certainly discussed in depth, but McClure’s was anything but a means for the president to get his message out; it thrived on asking the difficult questions. Overall, awesome writing on journalism at in the early 20th century, and I’m glad Stephanie Gorton is keeping the name “McClure’s” alive and well.
July 1, 2020
A great read! Well written and with lessons applicable to today's media world.
May 25, 2020
Stephanie Gorton’s “Citizen Reporters: S.S. McClure, Ida Tarbell, and the Magazine That Rewrote America,” takes me back to my early fascination with the impact of the muckraking journalists and how their history helped inspire me to a four-decade career in news editing and reporting. Gorton’s work, however, is superior to anything I read back in the day as it examines the triumphs, disappointments and legacies of journalists who helped shape our history. (Journalists will find especially spellbinding the account of Tarbell’s reporting and writing of The History of Standard Oil.) But this is a book that will appeal to an audience beyond journalists. Gorton writes, “this gave me a new lens for looking at the media landscape around me,” and it is for us as well. It’s easy to overlook the times before and between the world wars, but the history of those eras is rich with lessons for today, as is this terrific book. Today’s readers will find striking similarities. The next generation of journalists will find added inspiration.
April 20, 2020
Ida Tarbel ("The History of the Standard Oil Company") was one of the most famous journalists of the Gilded Age. Her publisher, S.S. McClure, less well known today, could count among his friends Arthur Conan Doyle, R.L. Stevenson, Twain, Kipling, and Willa Cather (who was also one of his editors). Other reporters who worked for "McClure's" magazine included Ray Stannard Baker, a pioneer of civil rights journalism (he studied under famed MSU botanist William Beal, and married his daughter) and Lincoln Steffens ("The Shame of the Cities"). With Tarbel, they were repeatedly denounced by president Theodore Roosevelt as "muckrakers," when they reported against his own political interests. Gorton's book is an absorbing look at the birth of investigative journalism in our country, the influence of mega business in politics, and at a period in US history with many ironic parallels to our own.
October 25, 2020
"Citizen Reporters" is a very good read. I've known about the impact of Ida Tarbell's reporting on Standard Oil for a long time; the story about McClure's Magazine was deepened in "The Bully Pulpit" by Doris Kearns Goodwin; now Stephanie Gorton goes further with a more-full accounting of the magazine, it's impetuous namesake publisher and the remarkable staff of reporters. For 10 years, no magazine was as influential, and the seeds of today's investigative journalism were laid here. (We also get a look at the ebb and flow of public opinion-mass media interactions that we are living through now.) My only quibble is that at times Gorton mixes up the chronology; I'm not opposed to that in principle, but I think it needs to be done purposefully, and I got the sense it was simply trains of thought. Still, I highly recommend this to history buffs but especially to journalism students and journalists -- it's where we come from.
April 25, 2020
Knowing as much as I do about Ida Tarbell and S.S. McClure, I'm glad to report that this book was very well done. Very few mistakes and hardly any mistakes in interpretation, although I think the author goes a bit too far in her view that after Tarbell et al left McClure's the rest of their lives appeared anti-climatic. McClure lived another 40 years and Tarbell nearly as many. Tarbell was a vibrant participant for the remainder of her life in society. Overall, this is a very well written book that should help bring Tarbell and McClure back into the public's consciousness.
Kathleen Brady's biography of Tarbell remains the best on the subject.
Kathleen Brady's biography of Tarbell remains the best on the subject.
June 6, 2020
A fascinating, impressively-written account of a crucial chapter in American journalism. Gorton does a wonderful job using her extensive research to bring to life two of that time's most important characters, S.S. McClure and Ida Tarbell. And every sentence in this book sings. Highly recommended.
May 7, 2020
Biographies or history not your bag? Surprise yourself, this is as compelling as any fiction I've read!
A glimpse into the history of magazines and investigative reporting. I was fascinated by all the famous authors whose books were serialized in McClures magazine. The author illustrates the main characters with an eye to their complexity. I enjoyed the occasional use of direct quotes from sources. I'm now driven to read more about others mentioned such as Ida B Wells.
A glimpse into the history of magazines and investigative reporting. I was fascinated by all the famous authors whose books were serialized in McClures magazine. The author illustrates the main characters with an eye to their complexity. I enjoyed the occasional use of direct quotes from sources. I'm now driven to read more about others mentioned such as Ida B Wells.
June 14, 2020
Abandoned. Not interesting to me. Started reading again during Pandemic. The historical facts turned out to be interesting. Had problems with erroneous news even back then. I admired McCure & Tarbell so much for their dedication & truth in reporting. Maybe today’s writers need to read this book!
May 4, 2020
As Descartes stated “The reading of all good books is like conversations with the friends of the past”
This is exactly how I felt reading Citizen Reporters. I could not wait for the next interaction of Ida Tarbell and S.S. McClure. This was an account of history that should not be missed!
This is exactly how I felt reading Citizen Reporters. I could not wait for the next interaction of Ida Tarbell and S.S. McClure. This was an account of history that should not be missed!
July 27, 2020
When Ida Tarbell was an adolescent growing up in the 1870’s in Titusville, in the oil region of northwestern Pennsylvania, she wanted to be a scientist. She enjoyed exploring nature, looking deep and close and careful to see things that were not easily apparent to the naked eye. But after graduating from Allegheny College, she turned that instinct for pain-staking research and attention to detail to journalism.
Starting in the 1890’s, Tarbell signed on with McClure’s magazine, one of the most influential magazines of the Gilded Age. A bedrock writer at McClure’s, she wrote several in-depth series on Napoleon and then Lincoln. After that, she turned her attention to Standard Oil, the oil producing and transportation behemoth run by John Rockefeller, one of the richest men in America. It would become her most enduring work.
“When she embarked on that, she already had her traditional Tarbell method worked out — this was unique to her before it became commonplace among journalists — she would do a lot of courtroom research and interviews. She tried to always confirm what one source was telling her with another source, or with documentary evidence. So that’s how she initially attacked it,” Stephanie Gorton told the Current by phone.
Gorton is the author of ‘Citizen Reporters: S.S. McClure, Ida Tarbell and the Magazine that Rewrote America’ (Ecco/HarperCollins, 2020), a book that feels particularly relevant at this moment, as journalism faces threats from outside and inside.
The president maligns journalists via twitter daily. Forbes recently published a story documenting the arrests of and attacks by police on journalists who are covering the nationwide protests. (54 and 173, respectively.) Simultaneously, the Post-Gazette has barred reporter Alexis Johnson and photojournalist Michael Santiago from covering the Black Lives Matter protests happening here in Pittsburgh. Both Johnson and Santiago are black, and Santiago was part of the team that won a Pulitzer for the paper for it’s coverage of the Tree of Life massacre.
Publisher S.S. McClure was a visionary, always looking for, “the next great thing that people would be excited to read and would potentially contribute to progress on a world scale,” according to Gorton. He had a talent for recognizing talent. He hired reporters to undertake immersive series, tackle complicated problems and explore the connective tissues of society. The staff at the magazine dug deep and set out to report with fearlessness and compassion.
Lincoln Steffens wrote a series investigating government malfeasance and political corruption (later, these collections were published as ‘The Shame of the Cities.’) Ray Stannard Baker wrote a series titled, ‘What Is a Lynching.’
“I find in this moment there was that spirit of righteousness,” Gorton said of the importance of the magazine. “I especially think of Baker’s series, ‘What Is a Lynching?’ In terms of the newspapers and magazines that would be in the halls of power and in the kind of old white man clubs — this was the first investigation in the press of the phenomenon of lynching. These were readers who were not reading the black press.”
These were mostly middle-class, mostly male reporters (other than Ida Tarbell) writing about poverty and societal unrest. They were also white reporters writing about race. McClure didn’t hire black writers and they weren’t elevating the work of Ida B. Wells. Yet, they were ahead of their time, even as they were a part of their era.
We now refer to Tarbell and her cohort as muckrakers — journalists who investigate events, practices and systems that those in power would prefer they not investigate. Muckrakers set out to comfort the afflicted and afflict the comfortable, as the saying goes. The term originated when President Teddy Roosevelt delivered a speech excoriating journalists in the spring of 1906. In it, he referred to the ‘man with the muck-rake character.’ Intended as a burn by Roosevelt, the term is a badge of honor for working journalists.
“He’s really pointing a finger at journalists,” Gorton explained. “Afterwards, he wrote letters to his friends in the corps saying, I was really trying to talk about the wrongdoers (at a few magazines and newspapers.) The public didn’t get that sense at all — the nuance was lost, if there really was any nuance there. But the energy behind investigative journalism was compromised by this blow against them from the very top.”
In the meantime, Tarbell’s Standard Oil series contributed to the dissolution of the monopoly and led to the Clayton Antitrust Act passed by Congress in 1914, ten years after publication. ‘Citizen Reporters’ feels like a book we all need to read right now, to be reminded of the power of investigative reporting.
“She wrote 19 articles (about Standard Oil.) Each one is substantial. She turned this into a compelling series for a mainstream readership,” Gorton noted of Tarbell’s tremendous skill as a writer. People read her history of a financial titan the way modern Americans consume podcasts. According to Gorton, most historians agree that it led to the Supreme Court’s dissolution of Standard Oil in 1911. It was so widely read that it changed history.
Starting in the 1890’s, Tarbell signed on with McClure’s magazine, one of the most influential magazines of the Gilded Age. A bedrock writer at McClure’s, she wrote several in-depth series on Napoleon and then Lincoln. After that, she turned her attention to Standard Oil, the oil producing and transportation behemoth run by John Rockefeller, one of the richest men in America. It would become her most enduring work.
“When she embarked on that, she already had her traditional Tarbell method worked out — this was unique to her before it became commonplace among journalists — she would do a lot of courtroom research and interviews. She tried to always confirm what one source was telling her with another source, or with documentary evidence. So that’s how she initially attacked it,” Stephanie Gorton told the Current by phone.
Gorton is the author of ‘Citizen Reporters: S.S. McClure, Ida Tarbell and the Magazine that Rewrote America’ (Ecco/HarperCollins, 2020), a book that feels particularly relevant at this moment, as journalism faces threats from outside and inside.
The president maligns journalists via twitter daily. Forbes recently published a story documenting the arrests of and attacks by police on journalists who are covering the nationwide protests. (54 and 173, respectively.) Simultaneously, the Post-Gazette has barred reporter Alexis Johnson and photojournalist Michael Santiago from covering the Black Lives Matter protests happening here in Pittsburgh. Both Johnson and Santiago are black, and Santiago was part of the team that won a Pulitzer for the paper for it’s coverage of the Tree of Life massacre.
Publisher S.S. McClure was a visionary, always looking for, “the next great thing that people would be excited to read and would potentially contribute to progress on a world scale,” according to Gorton. He had a talent for recognizing talent. He hired reporters to undertake immersive series, tackle complicated problems and explore the connective tissues of society. The staff at the magazine dug deep and set out to report with fearlessness and compassion.
Lincoln Steffens wrote a series investigating government malfeasance and political corruption (later, these collections were published as ‘The Shame of the Cities.’) Ray Stannard Baker wrote a series titled, ‘What Is a Lynching.’
“I find in this moment there was that spirit of righteousness,” Gorton said of the importance of the magazine. “I especially think of Baker’s series, ‘What Is a Lynching?’ In terms of the newspapers and magazines that would be in the halls of power and in the kind of old white man clubs — this was the first investigation in the press of the phenomenon of lynching. These were readers who were not reading the black press.”
These were mostly middle-class, mostly male reporters (other than Ida Tarbell) writing about poverty and societal unrest. They were also white reporters writing about race. McClure didn’t hire black writers and they weren’t elevating the work of Ida B. Wells. Yet, they were ahead of their time, even as they were a part of their era.
We now refer to Tarbell and her cohort as muckrakers — journalists who investigate events, practices and systems that those in power would prefer they not investigate. Muckrakers set out to comfort the afflicted and afflict the comfortable, as the saying goes. The term originated when President Teddy Roosevelt delivered a speech excoriating journalists in the spring of 1906. In it, he referred to the ‘man with the muck-rake character.’ Intended as a burn by Roosevelt, the term is a badge of honor for working journalists.
“He’s really pointing a finger at journalists,” Gorton explained. “Afterwards, he wrote letters to his friends in the corps saying, I was really trying to talk about the wrongdoers (at a few magazines and newspapers.) The public didn’t get that sense at all — the nuance was lost, if there really was any nuance there. But the energy behind investigative journalism was compromised by this blow against them from the very top.”
In the meantime, Tarbell’s Standard Oil series contributed to the dissolution of the monopoly and led to the Clayton Antitrust Act passed by Congress in 1914, ten years after publication. ‘Citizen Reporters’ feels like a book we all need to read right now, to be reminded of the power of investigative reporting.
“She wrote 19 articles (about Standard Oil.) Each one is substantial. She turned this into a compelling series for a mainstream readership,” Gorton noted of Tarbell’s tremendous skill as a writer. People read her history of a financial titan the way modern Americans consume podcasts. According to Gorton, most historians agree that it led to the Supreme Court’s dissolution of Standard Oil in 1911. It was so widely read that it changed history.
April 11, 2020
Very interesting account of the rise and fall of McClure's magazine in the early 1900s, a veritable Dream Team of investigative reporting, also known as muckraking!
April 28, 2020
A must read for anyone who who is interested in media. Meticulously crafted and engagingly written, go read it!
August 8, 2020
What a wonderful book to read! Though the lives of Samuel McClure and Ida Tarbell have been well documented, author Stephanie Gorton has weaved their two lives together, as well as those of other significant individuals, to provide an understanding of why McClure's Magazine became a run-away success at the turn of the century - and then struggled to survive. Gorton is an excellent writer and her work has been superbly edited. This is one of those books where you want to keep reading to find out what is going to happen next.
I have read quite a bit about both McClure and Tarbell. It appears that a substantial amount of Gorton's material for McClure was taken from Willa Cather's ghostwritten autobiography of McClure (My Autobiography), especially McClure's early life, as well as Peter Lyon's award-winning book Success Story: The Life and Times of S. S. McClure, published in 1967. Lyon's book is extremely detailed and he had direct access to most of McClure's personal correspondence as he was McClure's grandson. Lyon, however, does not delve into Samuel's romantic affairs or his personal love for Ida.
I have been a long time researcher of the early history of Porter County, Indiana, and it is here that McClure's formative years took place; namely, Hebron and Valparaiso, Indiana. Interestingly, though not mentioned by Gorton, there were two individuals that greatly involved themselves in attempting to successfully salvage McClure's Magazine when the publication was operating on its last financial vapors. Valparaiso businessman and entrepreneur Lewis E. Myers provided capital for the magazine. Myers was nationally successful in developing and marketing educational material and equipment, as well as recreation items, like wagons and push toys. He was a contemporary of McClure throughout McClure's life.
Edward R. Rumely, of nearby LaPorte, Indiana, was a generation younger than McClure and would become the publisher of the New York Evening Mail. Rumely had a life that seemed to parallel much of McClure's. Like McClure, he was a friend of Theodore Roosevelt and believed in many progressive causes. While McClure supported Fascism and Mussolini during the 1930s, Rumely supported the Germans during the First World War - to the point of being convicted of violating the Trading with the Enemy Act (he was later pardoned by President Woodrow Wilson). Rumely was also very instrumental in pushing against President Franklin Delano Roosevelt's plan to "pack" the U.S. Supreme Court with additional justices solely to bend the court to support his positions. Rumely was very much against FDR's New Deal policies, which he believed trampled on constitutional rights of Americans. McClure wrote numerous editorial articles for Rumely's newspaper, and when McClure's publication was sinking into financial ruin, Rumely provided McClure a financial lifeline, albeit unsuccessfully.
I have written an annotation of Willa Cather's first two installments of McClure's My Autobiography, which cover McClure's life up to his move to Galesburg, Illinois, to attend Knox College. It provides additional context to the first chapter of Gorton's book. You can find my work concerning the early life of McClure here: Porter County's Muckraker: Samuel Sidney McClure .
I hope to read future books by Stephanie Gorton, as I very much enjoyed her style of writing.
I have read quite a bit about both McClure and Tarbell. It appears that a substantial amount of Gorton's material for McClure was taken from Willa Cather's ghostwritten autobiography of McClure (My Autobiography), especially McClure's early life, as well as Peter Lyon's award-winning book Success Story: The Life and Times of S. S. McClure, published in 1967. Lyon's book is extremely detailed and he had direct access to most of McClure's personal correspondence as he was McClure's grandson. Lyon, however, does not delve into Samuel's romantic affairs or his personal love for Ida.
I have been a long time researcher of the early history of Porter County, Indiana, and it is here that McClure's formative years took place; namely, Hebron and Valparaiso, Indiana. Interestingly, though not mentioned by Gorton, there were two individuals that greatly involved themselves in attempting to successfully salvage McClure's Magazine when the publication was operating on its last financial vapors. Valparaiso businessman and entrepreneur Lewis E. Myers provided capital for the magazine. Myers was nationally successful in developing and marketing educational material and equipment, as well as recreation items, like wagons and push toys. He was a contemporary of McClure throughout McClure's life.
Edward R. Rumely, of nearby LaPorte, Indiana, was a generation younger than McClure and would become the publisher of the New York Evening Mail. Rumely had a life that seemed to parallel much of McClure's. Like McClure, he was a friend of Theodore Roosevelt and believed in many progressive causes. While McClure supported Fascism and Mussolini during the 1930s, Rumely supported the Germans during the First World War - to the point of being convicted of violating the Trading with the Enemy Act (he was later pardoned by President Woodrow Wilson). Rumely was also very instrumental in pushing against President Franklin Delano Roosevelt's plan to "pack" the U.S. Supreme Court with additional justices solely to bend the court to support his positions. Rumely was very much against FDR's New Deal policies, which he believed trampled on constitutional rights of Americans. McClure wrote numerous editorial articles for Rumely's newspaper, and when McClure's publication was sinking into financial ruin, Rumely provided McClure a financial lifeline, albeit unsuccessfully.
I have written an annotation of Willa Cather's first two installments of McClure's My Autobiography, which cover McClure's life up to his move to Galesburg, Illinois, to attend Knox College. It provides additional context to the first chapter of Gorton's book. You can find my work concerning the early life of McClure here: Porter County's Muckraker: Samuel Sidney McClure .
I hope to read future books by Stephanie Gorton, as I very much enjoyed her style of writing.
January 15, 2021
Excellent history of the magazine industry told through the story of one of them: McClure’s. I wasn’t familiar with the magazine, even through I was familiar with one of its key writers, Ida Tarbell. She and the founder, S.S. McClure were fascinating people. Ida determined at a young age that she would never marry, to avoid what she said were the three roles permitted to women in society: doormat, toy, and tool. She went to college when women just didn’t do so, lived a while in France, travelled extensively, and wrote prolifically. She was essentially the first staff writer in the industry; typically, magazines bought individual articles from writers who sold to many publications, but McClure recognized her talent for investigative journalism and hired her on. She wrote biographies of Lincoln, Napoleon, and others, but was mostly known for her expose of John Rockefeller.
McClure would likely have been diagnosed today as manic-depressive as well as ADHD, but he remade the industry. He sold his magazine far below his competitors because he initiated selling advertising instead of just relying on subscriptions to pay for production. He was willing to run tremendous risk, and passionately pursued the growth of his baby even when running in the red for a considerable length of time. He launched writing careers, was friends with the likes of Mark Twain and Arthur Conan Doyle, had Willa Cather on staff for a time, and buddied around with Theodore Roosevelt.
Through its exposes and reporting on the workings of industry and its personages, McClure’s revealed how wealth and power and politics intertwined in America. Unfortunately, it also crossed the line into muckraking. As the author said at the end, the story “shows the pitfalls of a media world whose major currency is outrage, a dynamic that can jeopardize the integrity of investigative work and seems certain to set readers on a path to apathy.”
One of McClure’s competitors, The Atlantic, is still around (and one of my favorites), but McClure’s magazine itself finally failed through a combination of poor business decisions, a changing public, and a egomaniacal leader who lost the ability to lead.
McClure would likely have been diagnosed today as manic-depressive as well as ADHD, but he remade the industry. He sold his magazine far below his competitors because he initiated selling advertising instead of just relying on subscriptions to pay for production. He was willing to run tremendous risk, and passionately pursued the growth of his baby even when running in the red for a considerable length of time. He launched writing careers, was friends with the likes of Mark Twain and Arthur Conan Doyle, had Willa Cather on staff for a time, and buddied around with Theodore Roosevelt.
Through its exposes and reporting on the workings of industry and its personages, McClure’s revealed how wealth and power and politics intertwined in America. Unfortunately, it also crossed the line into muckraking. As the author said at the end, the story “shows the pitfalls of a media world whose major currency is outrage, a dynamic that can jeopardize the integrity of investigative work and seems certain to set readers on a path to apathy.”
One of McClure’s competitors, The Atlantic, is still around (and one of my favorites), but McClure’s magazine itself finally failed through a combination of poor business decisions, a changing public, and a egomaniacal leader who lost the ability to lead.
December 3, 2020
I enjoyed the book, it was really interesting. I love writing, and the history of journalism. This was one of the stories of the Muckrakers. But I don't agree with a couple of major parts of the author's thesis.
The book jacket says: "Tracing McClure's from its meteoric rise to its spectacularly swift and dramatic conclusion ..." McClure's magazine did shoot to the top really fast, so I was expecting some pretty major fireworks as it imploded. Not so much.
First of all, for all the author's concern about S.S. McClure's affairs as he cheated on his wife, and the moral decay that put onto the magazine, she never showed how the affairs affected subscriptions or the reporting. Based on this book, the two were not actually connected. What caused the walk-out of the senior staff was that McClure had an extremely outlandish business idea that he kept pushing, and they finally said Enough. One person quit, then another one a month later, then a couple of the senior writers finished their stories and THEN quit ... No blow-up. No making a scene. It all seemed pretty quiet.
And that did not, in fact, kill the magazine. It kept going for another 23 years. The senior staff from the creation of the magazine all quit in 1906. McClure kept it going for another five years until he was bought out by the Board of Directors and given the boot in 1911. The magazine was still going until it merged with another magazine in 1929. THEN it ceased publication.
So the book was good and I enjoyed reading it. But the expectation that was set up in the description was not at all what actually happened.
The book jacket says: "Tracing McClure's from its meteoric rise to its spectacularly swift and dramatic conclusion ..." McClure's magazine did shoot to the top really fast, so I was expecting some pretty major fireworks as it imploded. Not so much.
First of all, for all the author's concern about S.S. McClure's affairs as he cheated on his wife, and the moral decay that put onto the magazine, she never showed how the affairs affected subscriptions or the reporting. Based on this book, the two were not actually connected. What caused the walk-out of the senior staff was that McClure had an extremely outlandish business idea that he kept pushing, and they finally said Enough. One person quit, then another one a month later, then a couple of the senior writers finished their stories and THEN quit ... No blow-up. No making a scene. It all seemed pretty quiet.
And that did not, in fact, kill the magazine. It kept going for another 23 years. The senior staff from the creation of the magazine all quit in 1906. McClure kept it going for another five years until he was bought out by the Board of Directors and given the boot in 1911. The magazine was still going until it merged with another magazine in 1929. THEN it ceased publication.
So the book was good and I enjoyed reading it. But the expectation that was set up in the description was not at all what actually happened.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
May 18, 2021
Interesting biography of S.S. McClure publisher of McClure's magazine (which at one point had 400,000 circulation) and Ida Tarbell, who worked for McClure as a reporter and is most famous for her expose of the Standard Oil Company a masterpiece of muckraking journalism. (It appeared in McClure's magazine and was later published in book form.) McClure and Tarbell had a long and fruitful working relationship at McClure's (not a romantic one btw). This was in an era where the only real competition magazines had was newspapers long before radio and TV and the Internet became sources of news and also misinformation. McClure almost undoubtedly suffered from manic depressive illness and must have been hell to work for. His tantrums, extravagant spending, travel with no notice and grandiose ideas and schemes eventually led to his downfall and the end of a profitable magazine. But he was also a charmer, much loved by many and had a gift for discovering talent - like Ida Tarbell, who he hired as a reporter, back when a female reporter was an unusual and extraordinary career choice. Ida vowed never to marry and have children and lived her best life as a reporter, investigator and lecturer. She also kept McClure's magazine working when he was unsuited to the day to day details of running a magazine. Really interesting book.
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