Progressive Era

34 Green 4/10/13
US AP Per   3 Ms. G


During the Progressive Era (1890-1920), the United States had many problems which had to be fixed. These problems were from meat packing facilities to factories and workshops with child labor. The muckrakers were a group that would help reform the US during the Progressive Era.
One major muckraker that made a difference was Sinclair and his novel, The Jungle. According to Document 1, The Jungle exposed the meat packing facilities way of business. The old sausage that had been rejected from Europe was brought to the United States to be processed for US consumption.   The room it was stored in would be dark and there were leaking roofs on top of the mold. There would also be rats running and pooping over the sausage.   Sinclair was probably trying to get the attention of the reader to show how horrible the meat packing facilities were and he wanted change. Theodore Roosevelt read the book and changed America by passing laws and Acts as seen in Document 2.
A second problem that the muckrakers tried to fix was the child labor problem in the US. According to Document 4, Children under 14 are prohibited from being employed. This was an effective law because as seen in Document 5, child labor went down rapidly from 1910 through 1930.
As seen from the documents, the muckrakers had a major effect for reforms during the Progressive Era in the US. They would write novels and articles about harsh conditions and would pressure the president in passing acts and laws such as the Inspection Act. This era changed America forever.