The muckrakers' influence in society reached its peak between 1904 and 1908, when the exposes on patent-medicine fraud, meat processing, insurance swindles, monopolies, political corruption, and racial violence led to criminal indictments and reform legislation. ... Political bosses and machines paid off big businesses to keep them in power and used processes like padding bills and submitting false receipts. Political machines worked through exchanges of favors that only a muckraker could find out. ... Ida Tarbell worked to expose big business and political scandal. ... Without muckraking...

• Word Count: 1188
• Approx Pages: 5
• Grade Level: Undergraduate