Event Title
A Golden Age Free from Crime, Disease, Filth, and Poverty': Muckrakers and Public Health Reform in the Progressive Era
Location
Parker-Reed, SSWAC
Start Date
1-5-2014 2:00 PM
End Date
1-5-2014 3:00 PM
Project Type
Poster- Restricted to Campus Access
Description
Written and photographed accounts of social health travesties incensed an American public eager to fight for their perceived health rights during the Progressive Era. This study focuses on three social reformers and their respective works, in particular. Jacob Riis 1890 How the Other Half Lives: Studies Among the Tenements of New York, Samuel Hopkins Adams 1905 The Great American Fraud series, and Upton Sinclairs 1906 The Jungle each contributed to a push for greater attention and regulation in public health issues. Usually classified as muckrakers, these men uncovered medical truths and revealed the ills of dangerous food, drug, and housing production industries. Coined by President Theodore Roosevelt, the term muckraker refers to investigative journalists who use their work to expose corrupt practices and initiate social reform, in this case concerning public health regulation. Through emerging technologies and increasing understanding of bacterial diseases, investigative journalism contributed to significant public health reforms during the Progressive Era in the United States.
Faculty Sponsor
Paul Josephson
Sponsoring Department
Colby College. Science, Technology and Society Program
CLAS Field of Study
Interdisciplinary Studies
Event Website
http://www.colby.edu/clas
ID
627
A Golden Age Free from Crime, Disease, Filth, and Poverty': Muckrakers and Public Health Reform in the Progressive Era
Parker-Reed, SSWAC
Written and photographed accounts of social health travesties incensed an American public eager to fight for their perceived health rights during the Progressive Era. This study focuses on three social reformers and their respective works, in particular. Jacob Riis 1890 How the Other Half Lives: Studies Among the Tenements of New York, Samuel Hopkins Adams 1905 The Great American Fraud series, and Upton Sinclairs 1906 The Jungle each contributed to a push for greater attention and regulation in public health issues. Usually classified as muckrakers, these men uncovered medical truths and revealed the ills of dangerous food, drug, and housing production industries. Coined by President Theodore Roosevelt, the term muckraker refers to investigative journalists who use their work to expose corrupt practices and initiate social reform, in this case concerning public health regulation. Through emerging technologies and increasing understanding of bacterial diseases, investigative journalism contributed to significant public health reforms during the Progressive Era in the United States.
https://digitalcommons.colby.edu/clas/2014/program/358