海角大神

Income disparities, technology-induced displacement of workers, and political corruption were at the heart of America鈥檚 Gilded Age in the late 19th century. While 鈥測ellow journalism鈥� exploited scandals and spread falsehoods, some reform-minded聽journals set out to expose society鈥檚 ills through investigative reporting.

While little remembered today, McClure鈥檚 was a landmark magazine and a vivid reminder of the power of journalists to expose wrongdoing and compel change. In 鈥淐itizen Reporters: S.S. McClure, Ida Tarbell, and the Magazine That Rewrote America,鈥� Stephanie Gorton weaves an entertaining history of this important journal and the people responsible for its success. While centered on events that occurred between 1890 and 1910, the tale she tells feels relevant today.聽

Sam McClure and his family emigrated from Ireland to America in 1866, after his father died. The family were subsistence farmers. McClure worked his way through Knox College in Galesburg, Illinois, where he founded the student newspaper and was well known on campus for his tenacity and energy.聽

In the early 1890s he established his eponymous magazine in New York City and built it around a stable of writers that included Jack London, Ray Stannard Baker, Upton Sinclair, Rudyard Kipling, Arthur Conan Doyle, Robert Louis Stevenson, Willa Cather, and Mark Twain.聽

Despite this all-star roster, nobody was more important to his magazine鈥檚 success than Ida Tarbell. Her father was part of the mid-19th century oil boom in Pennsylvania. Unfortunately, John D. Rockefeller and Henry Flagler鈥檚 Standard Oil Co. would eventually put Franklin Tarbell and many of his neighbors out of business.聽

McClure鈥檚 major innovation was turning his journalists loose to examine a massive subject without regard to deadlines or cost. Lincoln Steffens, as Gorton details in her book, investigated municipal corruption in St. Louis, Minneapolis, Pittsburgh, and Philadelphia in a series known as the 鈥淪hame of the Cities.鈥� Baker wrote 鈥淭he Right to Work鈥� in 1903 about a strike and the terrifying working conditions facing coal miners in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania.

More than anyone else, Ida Tarbell demonstrated what such journalism could really accomplish. In a 19-part series published between November 1902 and October 1904 she produced a devastating portrait of Standard Oil and its pervasive, corrupt business practices.聽

She spent four years researching the story and relied on extensive interviews, public records, and private documents. Later published as a two-volume book, her work is widely credited with pressuring the federal government to break up the company.

Yet even as the magazine brought attention to serious issues, there were problems in the office. Largely they were caused by McClure himself. A brilliant man, he was, in Kipling鈥檚 words, 鈥渁 cyclone in a frock-coat ... he鈥檇 kill me in a week with mere surplus of energy.鈥� He was given to taking long trips to Europe to identify new topics for his writers. He would then return to the office overflowing with ideas and totally upend the business of publishing.

Tarbell was caught in the middle. 鈥淢iss Tarbell could not escape the fact,鈥� writes Gorton, 鈥渢hat she had become both the Chief鈥檚 conscience and the staff鈥檚 best hope to right the ship.鈥� Personally, she wanted 鈥渘othing more than to be left alone.鈥� No such luck.聽

There are plenty of books about McClure, Tarbell, and McClure鈥檚 magazine. What Gorton does is provide a lively narrative that brings the three together in a strong, well-written, and compelling volume. Extensively researched, the book is written with flair. Readers will find themselves caught up in the story and rooting for the protagonists.

It鈥檚 easy to note parallels between the events that Gorton so effectively recounts and our own time. To wit: bitter debates about America鈥檚 place in the world, widespread and increasing income inequality, fears that large corporations have too much power, and a president who condemns the media as 鈥渃orrupt鈥� and 鈥渁n evil propaganda machine for the Democratic Party.鈥澛�

Gorton is too careful a writer to overstate the connections and notes: 鈥淭he parallels between the Gilded Age and today are not neat enough to draw easy lessons from the rise and fall of McClure鈥檚.鈥� Agreed. But readers are likely to come away with the impression that, as the saying goes, 鈥淗istory doesn鈥檛 repeat itself but it often rhymes.鈥�