Ida Tarbell
a muckraker who revealed the shady practices by which Rockefeller transformed Standard Oil into a monopoly in her book History of Standard Oil Company; exposed greed of Rockefeller
Henry Demarest Lloyd
One of the earliest muckrakers from Chicago who wrote a series of articles for the Atlantic Monthly attacking the practices of the Standard Oil Company and the railroad companies. He wrote Wealth Against Commonwealth in 1894 that exposed the corruption an
Thorstein Veblen
(1857-1929) American economist (of Norwegian heritage). Veblen is primarily remembered for his The Theory of the Leisure Class (1899) that introduced phrases like "conspicuous consumption." He is remembered for likening the ostentation of the rich to the
Jacob A. Riis
Danish immigrant who wrote "How the Other Half Lives" in 1890. It documented the squalid living conditions in New York City slums in the 1880s
Robert M. La Follette
Progressive republican leader in senate, targeted railroad industry, taxes railroad property at the same rate as other business property, set up a commission to regulate rates, forbade railroads to issue free passes to state officials
Hiram W. Johnson
A progressive reformer of the early 1900s. He was elected the republican governor of California in 1910, and helped to put an end to trusts. He put an end to the power that the Southern Pacific Railroad had over politics.
Florence Kelley
An advocate for improving the lives of women and children. (Social Welfare). She was appointed chief inspector of factories in Illinois. She helped win passage of the Illinois factory act in 1893 which prohibited child labor and limited women's working ho
Frances E. Willard
the most famous woman of the nineteenth century;" ran the Women's Christian Temperance Union (WCTU) from 1878-97; campaigned for woman's suffrage, abstinence from alcohol, reformation of prison systems, abolition of prostitution, and elimination of wage
Gifford Pinchot
Head of the U.S. Forest Service under Roosevelt, who believed that it was possible to make use of natural resources while conserving them
John Muir
(1838-1914) Naturalist who believed the wilderness should be preserved in its natural state. He was largely responsible for the creation of Yosemite National Park in California.
Herbert Croly
He wrote the The Promise of American Life (1909) where he called for an activist fed govn't of the kind Hamilton had advocated in the 1790s but one that would serve all citizens, not merely the capitalist class.