Joseph Lincoln Steffens (April 6, 1866 – August 9, 1936) was an American journalist and one of the most famous and influential practitioners of the journalistic style called muckraking. Events 46 BC - Julius Caesar defeats Caecilius Metellus Scipio and Marcus Porcius Cato in the Battle of Thapsus Year 1866 ( MDCCCLXVI) was a Common year starting on Monday (link will display the full calendar of the Gregorian calendar (or a Common Events 48 BC - Caesar's civil war: Battle of Pharsalus - Julius Caesar decisively defeats Pompey at Pharsalus Year 1936 ( MCMXXXVI) was a Leap year starting on Wednesday (link will display the full calendar of the Gregorian calendar. The United States of America —commonly referred to as the For other meanings see Muckraker (disambiguation The term muckraker most associated with a group of American investigative reporters He is also known for his 1921 statement, upon his return from the Soviet Union: "I have been over into the future, and it works. The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR was a constitutionally Socialist state that existed in Eurasia from 1922 to 1991 "
A better known version of his famous quote, "I've seen the future, and it works," can be found on the title page of the 1933 edition of Red Virtue, written by his wife, Ella Winter. Ella Winter was an American Communist and the wife of journalist Lincoln Steffens. [1]
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Biography
Steffens was born and grew up in San Francisco, California, and studied in France and Germany after graduating from the University of California, Berkeley, where he was first exposed to what were known then as "radical" political views. The City and County of San Francisco is the fourth most populous city The University of California Berkeley (also referred to as Cal, Berkeley and UC Berkeley) is a major research university located in Berkeley
At McClure's magazine, Steffens became part of a celebrated muckraking trio, along with Ida Tarbell and Ray Stannard Baker. McClure's or McClure's Magazine was an American illustrated monthly periodical popular at the turn of the 20th century Ida Minerva Tarbell ( November 5 1857 &ndash January 6 1944) was a American Teacher, Author and Journalist. Ray Stannard Baker ( April 17, 1870 – July 12, 1946) also known by his Pen name David Grayson, was a American He specialized in investigating government and political corruption, and two collections of his articles were published as The Shame of the Cities (1904) and The Struggle for Self-Government (1906). The Shame of the Cities was a work published in 1904 by Lincoln Steffens that sought to expose public corruption in many major cities throughout the United States. He also wrote The Traitor State, which criticized New Jersey for patronizing incorporation. New Jersey ( is a state in the Mid-Atlantic and Northeastern regions of the United States. Incorporation (abbreviated Inc in US and Canadian business names is the forming of a new Corporation (a corporation being a legal entity In 1906, he left McClure's, along with Tarbell and Baker, to form American Magazine. The American Magazine was a Periodical publication founded in June 1906, stemming from failed publications purchased a few years earlier from publishing
In The Shame of the Cities, Steffens sought to bring about political reform in urban America by appealing to the emotions of Americans. He tried to make them feel very outraged and "shamed" by showing examples of corrupt governments throughout urban America.
In 1910 he covered the Mexican Revolution and began to see revolution as preferable to reform. The Mexican Revolution (Revolución Mexicana was a major armed struggle that started with an uprising led by Francisco I In 1919, he visited the Soviet Union together with William C. Bullitt and the Swedish Communist Karl Kilbom, and Steffens developed an enthusiasm for Communism; not long after, he made his famous remark about the new Soviet government, which in fact, according to historian Richard Pipes, Steffen wrote on a train in Sweden before he had even arrived in the USSR. William Bullitt may refer to William Christian Bullitt Jr, (1891 — 1967 American diplomat journalist and novelist William Marshall Bullitt Karl Kilbom (1885 – 1961 was a Swedish Socialist Politician. Communism is a Socioeconomic structure that promotes the establishment of an egalitarian, classless, stateless Society based Richard Edgar Pipes (born July 11, 1923) is an American historian who specializes in Russian history, particularly with respect to the history of the "Sverige" redirects here For other uses see Sweden (disambiguation and Sverige (disambiguation.
His enthusiam had soured by the time he wrote his memoirs, published in 1931. He was a member of a group that came to be known as the California Writers Project, funded by the New Deal. Some of its members were socialists or communists, while others had little formal interest in politics.
He died in 1936.
Bibliography
Primary sources
- Autobiography of Lincoln Steffens (2005).
- The Letters of Lincoln Steffens, edited by Ella Winter and Granville Hicks. 2 vol. 1938.
Secondary sources
- Christopher Lasch; The American Liberals and the Russian Revolution Columbia University Press, 1962
- Justin Kaplan; Lincoln Steffens: A Biography (2004)
- Stanley K. Schultz. "The Morality of Politics: The Muckrakers' Vision of Democracy," The Journal of American History, Vol. 52, No. 3. (Dec. , 1965), pp. 527-547. in Jstor
- ^ Ella Winter, Red Virtue, Victor Gollancz LTD. , (1933)
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