Brittany Clark
Am St 100.2 – Writing America
Lesson:
The American Dream – The Progressive Era and The Jungle
Overview:
The excesses of the Gilded Age had many questioning the lack of regulation. The rise of the
Progressive Era saw reform minded citizens seeking change, and journalists willing to expose the
ills of society in their writing. Upton Sinclair’s 1906 book The Jungle set out to expose the
horrendous working conditions (especially for immigrants who could be easily exploited for not
speaking English or knowing customs of the culture), but ended up transforming the conditions
that produced the country’s meat.
Objectives:
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Students will make develop an understanding of how the excesses of the Gilded Age led
to the reforms of the Progressive Era
Students will identify how newspapers and muckrakers exposed living and working
conditions of the era.
Students will recognize how The Jungle is a work of muckraking.
Notes:
Recap -- Gilded Age
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The Gilded Age was a period of economic growth as the United States
o The unequal distribution of wealth remained high during this period. From 1860
to 1900, the wealthiest 2% of American households owned more than a third of
the nation's wealth
The nation was rapidly expanding its economy into new areas, especially heavy
industry like factories, railroads
o Increased mechanization of industry is a major mark of the Gilded Age's search
for cheaper ways to create more product.
o This mechanization made some factories an assemblage of unskilled laborers
performing simple and repetitive tasks under the direction of skilled foremen
Immigration Boom
o approximately 10 million immigrants came to the United
o Switch away from Western to Eastern Europeans.
Growth in cities
o Chicago (where The Jungle is largely set) grows from 29,000 people in 1850 to
1.7 million in 1900
o This growth is largely due to in the influx of immigrants and others looking for
this low skilled work. Looking for their own American Dream where they might
someday become the next Andrew Carnegie or John Rockefeller.
The Progressive Era (1890s – 1920s)
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a period of widespread social activism and political reform
There was this idea that laissez faire, free market capitalism (the idea that the government
should be kept out of business as much as possible) was not working for everyone
o Out of control monopolies
o Income inequality was outrageous
Reform movements sprung up for everything: economics, politics, science and education.
o Out of this movement we get
 The rise of labor unions fighting for things like an 8-hour work day
 The Sherman AntiTrust Act which regulated monopolies
 The 17th Amendment, which said that Senators, previously appointed by
state legislators, would now be elected by the people through primaries
 Women’s suffrage and the 19th Amendment granted women voting rights
Hearst vs. Pulitzer
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Opposing newspaper magnets
Hearst came from wealth
Pulitzer rose up by his bootstraps
If it weren’t for the other person, either would’ve had a newspaper monopoly
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Their rivalry was all about trying to one-up the other guy, and see who could sell more
papers
o At first Hearst undercharges for his papers, forcing Pulitzer to do the same (think
of the Walmart model today)
o Then they started feeding on the sensationalism of Yellow Journalism – blowing a
story out of proportion, or even making stuff up.
 “If it bleeds, it leads.”
 Focused largely on scandals and crimes.
o Eventually, the public gets tired of all of this sensationalism, and so it becomes
about telling the story better, more truthfully.
 After his death, Pulitzer’s heirs established the Pulitzer Prize, which is a
well-respected journalistic award is still given out today.
Raking the Muck
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This is where our book, The Jungle, comes in.
A type of investigative journalism aimed at exposing the ills of society.
Partly in response to yellow journalism, and sensationalist journalism, in feeling that the
public had the right to know what was going on in society, and that these types of stories
weren’t giving them the whole picture. They were more about selling papers than about
exposing the truth.
It should be noted that muckraking still used sensationalism to get the word out.
o Figures like Nelly Bly who went undercover at an insane asylum fed on the
sensational elements to sell her story, while still exposing the truth.
But from this we get works like:
o Ida M. Tarbell exposing the manipulation inherent in creating a monopoly at John
Rockefeller’s Standard Oil company
o Jacob Riis using photographs to expose the living conditions in large cities,
particularly in slums
o Lincoln Steffens exploring the link between politicians and their links to big
businesses.
o Samuel Hopkins Adams exposing the false claims made by patent medicines,
which,
o along with Upton Sinclair’s The Jungle led to the 1906 Pure Food and Drug Act.
Activity
In groups of 4-5, students will look at images that show working and living conditions from the
time period (including those by Jacob Riis). Each group will spend 10-15 minutes writing their
own short (one paragraph) muckraking piece based on this image. After the time, groups will
present their piece to the class.
[Note: The rest of this lesson can be carried over to the next class period as time permits]
The Jungle
“I aimed for the public’s heart, and by accident hit it in the stomach.” – Upton Sinclair
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Written in 1906 after a 26 year old Upton Sinclair went undercover working in the Chicago
meatpacking industry.
The book is actually dedicated to “The workingmen of America.”
o Sinclair said [quote], as he intended the book to expose poor working conditions,
especially for immigrants who would come into the country searching for that
American Dream, only to get taken advantage of because they didn’t speak English
or know the customs of the country.
o Instead, the public was more concerned with what was going into their meat and
the conditions in which it was being processed.
It caused President Teddy Roosevelt to look into these conditions and pass the Pure Food
and Drug Act, and the Meat Inspection Act, only 4 months after the book was published.
o He also established the Bureau of Chemistry, later renamed the Food and Drug
Administration to oversee the inspection of these things.
Today we recognize the aspects of the book depicting the struggles of workers, but that
wasn’t readily apparent to the readers, who were distracted with the other parts. And so,
consequently, there was no large public outcry for worker’s rights after the publication.
o Eventually (in the 1930s) labor unions organized and improved the conditions for
working people. But we’ll talk about that more next time.
Impact
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The impact of this book goes beyond just Schlesinger’s Fast Food Nation.
o Pink Slime
 2012 ABC news did a report on what kind of fillers and preservatives go
into packaged ground beef.
o Chipotle Commercials in in 2011 and 2013
o Jamie Oliver’s Food revolution
 A show depicting celebrity chef Jamie Oliver as he tried to reform American
school lunch programs. In the first season he visited a city in West Virginia,
which is statistically one of the unhealthiest cities in the country. In one
episode he demonstrated how McDonald’s chicken nuggets are made from
chicken byproducts.
Sinclair and the Jungle allowed us to really question the standards of the food we eat, and
make sure that it is up to snuff. Even if that wasn’t quite what he intended.