Muckraking (investigative) journalists and novelists were the shock troops of progressive regulation of corporate America. One of the most powerful of these reform-minded writers was Upton Sinclair. In 1906 he published The Jungle, a novel situated in Chicago's horrific meat-packing district. With graphic detail, it tells the story of Jurgis Rudkus, a Lithuanian .immigrant, and his travails in Dunham's, a fictional meat-packing plant. Soon after the book appeared Congress passed the Meat Inspection Act in an effort to address the abuses cited by Sinclair and others.

In the cartoon Standard Oil is depicted as an octopus seizing industries and the Capitol, while stretching out for the White House. After the phenomenal industrial growth of the late 1800s, reformers feared that unregulated big business would use its influence for private gain at the expense of public good.

In the early 1900s, Lewis Hine left his job as a schoolteacher to work as a photographer for the National Child Labor Committee, investigating and documenting child labor in the United States.

Progressive Era reformers sought to harness the power of the federal government to eliminate unethical and unfair business practices, reduce corruption, and counteract the negative social effects of industrialization.

This lesson is about Reform Movements in US History, what led to them, and the outcome of their fight for reform. It includes Women's Suffrage, The Progressive Movement, The Rise of the Temperance Movement, and the 1800s-1920s.This lesson will be presented in a primarily synchronous, face-to-face manner. It could possibly span a week in length.

A video review of the causes of the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire and the ensuing reprecussions of the tragedy.

A video review of the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory with a first person testimony of a survivor of the fire.

Upton Sinclair wrote The Jungle to expose the appalling working conditions in the meat-packing industry. His description of diseased, rotten, and contaminated meat shocked the public and led to new federal food safety laws.