The Printed Word

Lincoln Steffens wrote [blank_start]The Shame of the Cities[blank_end] 1904 about the workings of corrupt political machines in several major U.S. cities, along with a few efforts to combat them. It is considered one of several early major pieces of muckraking journalism.

Andrew Carnegie wrote [blank_start]The Gospel of Wealth[blank_end] in 1889 about the responsibility of philanthropy by the new upper class of self-made rich.

Harriet Beecher Stowe wrote [blank_start]Uncle Tom's Cabin[blank_end] in 1852. It depicts the harsh life for African Americans under slavery. It reached millions as a novel and play, and became influential in the United States and Great Britain. It energized anti-slavery forces in the American North, while provoking widespread anger in the South.

[blank_start]Frederick Jackson Turner[blank_end] wrote The Significance of the Frontier in American History in 1893. He argued that the moving western frontier shaped American democracy and the American character from the colonial era until 1890. He is also known for his theories of geographical sectionalism.

Henry David Thoreau wrote [blank_start]On Civil Disobedience[blank_end] in 1849. In it, Thoreau argues that individuals should not permit governments to overrule or atrophy their consciences, and that they have a duty to avoid allowing such acquiescence to enable the government to make them the agents of injustice. Thoreau was motivated in part by his disgust with slavery and the Mexican–American War (1846-1848).

[blank_start]Rachel Carson[blank_end] wrote [blank_start]Silent Spring[blank_end] in 1961. The book documented the detrimental effects on the environment—particularly on birds—of the indiscriminate use of pesticides. [blank_start]Carson[blank_end] accused the chemical industry of spreading disinformation and public officials of accepting industry claims unquestioningly.

[blank_start]Helen Hunt Jackson[blank_end] wrote A Century of Dishonor in 1881 in an attempt to change government ideas/policy toward Native Americans at a time when effects of the 1871 Indian Appropriations Act (making the entire Native American population wards of the nation) had begun to draw the attention of the public.

John Steinbeck wrote [blank_start]The Grapes of Wrath[blank_end] in 1939. The book won the National Book Award and Pulitzer Prize for fiction, and it was cited prominently when Steinbeck was awarded the Nobel Prize in 1962. Set during [blank_start]the Great Depression[blank_end], the novel focuses on the Joads, a poor family of tenant farmers driven from their Oklahoma home by drought, economic hardship, agricultural industry changes and bank foreclosures forcing tenant farmers out of work. Due to their nearly hopeless situation, and in part because they are trapped in the Dust Bowl, the Joads set out for California. Along with thousands of other "Okies", they seek jobs, land, dignity, and a future.

[blank_start]Booker T. Washington[blank_end] wrote [blank_start]The Atlanta Compromise[blank_end] in 1895. The agreement was that Southern blacks would work and submit to white political rule, while Southern whites guaranteed that blacks would receive basic education and due process in law. Blacks would not agitate for equality, integration, or justice, and Northern whites would fund black educational charities.

Martin Luther King Jr. wrote a [blank_start]Letter from a Birmingham Jail[blank_end] in 1963. The letter defends the strategy of [blank_start]nonviolent[blank_end] resistance to racism. It says that people have a moral responsibility to break unjust laws and to take direct action rather than waiting potentially forever for justice to come through the courts. Responding to being referred to as an "outsider," King writes, "Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere".

[blank_start]Jane Addams[blank_end] wrote Twenty Years at Hull House in 1910 about the poverty and abuses that existed during the Industrial Revolution in the United States.

[blank_start]William Lloyd Garrison[blank_end] write The LIberator in 1831. Although its circulation was only about 3,000, and three-quarters of subscribers were African Americans in 1834, the newspaper earned nationwide notoriety for its uncompromising advocacy of "immediate and complete emancipation of all slaves" in the United States.

[blank_start]Betty Friedan[blank_end] wrote [blank_start]The Feminine Mystique[blank_end] in 1963. It is widely credited with sparking the beginning of second-wave feminism in the United States. In 1957, this author was asked to conduct a survey of her former Smith College classmates for their 15th anniversary reunion; the results, in which she found that many of them were unhappy with their lives as housewives, prompted her to begin research for her book, conducting interviews with other suburban housewives, as well as researching psychology, media, and advertising. She originally intended to publish an article on the topic, not a book, but no magazine would publish her article.

Alfred T. [blank_start]Mahan[blank_end] wrote [blank_start]The Influence of Sea Power Upon HIstory[blank_end] in 1890. It details the role of [blank_start]sea power[blank_end] during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, and discusses the various factors needed to support and achieve sea power, with emphasis on having the largest and most powerful fleet. Scholars consider it the single most influential book in naval strategy. Its policies were quickly adopted by most major navies, ultimately leading to the [blank_start]World War I[blank_end] naval arms race.

Upton Sinclair wrote [blank_start]The Jungle[blank_end] in [blank_start]1906[blank_end]. Sinclair wrote the novel to portray the harsh conditions and exploited lives of immigrants in the United States in [blank_start]Chicago[blank_end] and similar industrialized cities. However, most readers were more concerned with his exposure of health violations and unsanitary practices in the American meatpacking industry during the early 20th century, greatly contributing to a public outcry which led to reforms including the [blank_start]Meat Inspection[blank_end] Act. Sinclair famously said of the public reaction "I aimed at the public's heart, and by accident I hit it in the stomach."

[blank_start]Jacob Riis[blank_end] wrote [blank_start]How the Other Half LIves[blank_end] in 1890 documenting squalid living conditions in New York City slums. It served as a basis for future "muckraking" journalism by exposing the slums to New York City’s upper and middle classes. This work inspired many reforms of working-class housing, both immediately after publication as well as making a lasting impact in today's society.

The [blank_start]Pentagon Papers[blank_end], officially titled United States – Vietnam Relations, 1945–1967: A Study Prepared by the Department of Defense, is a United States Department of Defense history of the United States' political-military involvement in Vietnam from 1945 to 1967. The papers were discovered and released by Daniel Ellsberg, and first brought to the attention of the public on the front page of The New York Times in 1971. A 1996 article in The New York Times said that the [blank_start]Pentagon Papers[blank_end] had demonstrated, among other things, that the Johnson Administration "systematically lied, not only to the public but also to Congress." More specifically, the papers revealed that the U.S. had secretly enlarged the scale of the Vietnam War with the bombings of nearby [blank_start]Cambodia[blank_end] and Laos, coastal raids on North Vietnam, and Marine Corps attacks, none of which were reported in the mainstream media.

Edward Michael "Mike" Harrington (February 24, 1928 – July 31, 1989) was an American democratic socialist, writer, political activist, political theorist, professor of political science, radio commentator and founding member of the Democratic Socialists of America. Though he published over fifty books, [blank_start]The Other America[blank_end] was Harrington's best known, and likely most influential book. Harrington believed that American Socialists could support certain Democratic Party candidates, including candidates for President, and this work influenced the presidencies of both John Kennedy and Lyndon Johnson. In a nutshell, the book was a study of poverty in the United States, published in 1962 by Macmillan. It found a small but emerging audience in an America that was developing a greater self-awareness after the struggles of WWII and the Korean War. Dwight D. Eisenhower's two terms as President from 1952-60 had temporarily upended the New Deal Coalition begun by Franklin Roosevelt, which was revived at least in spirit by the election of John Kennedy in 1960.