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Lincoln Steffens

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This is a great biography of the muckraking journalist Lincoln Steffens who exposed a number of corrupt practices by politicians in many of the large cities in America around the turn of the twentieth-century. Born in San Francisco and educated at the University of California and in Europe, he settled in NYC and began writing for the New York papers. In 1901 he joined McClure's Magazine and with other social critics working there (Ida Tarbell, Ray Stannard Baker) began writing about political corruption in St. Louis, Minneapolis, and other large cities. The articles were a tremendous success and were later brought out in book form, entitled THE SHAME OF THE CITIES. Theodore Roosevelt was impressed by the work of these journalists (at first, anyway) and tagged them "muckrakers," a reference to certain characters in PILGIM'S PROGRESS. Steffens, as Kaplan makes clear, was not just an exposer of political evils or a moralist, but raised more questions than he answered and made the public aware, through irony and other literary devices, of the paradoxes between public life and private affairs. His chief question, as Kaplan says, was "What are you going to do about it?"

Later, when exposed to the Russian Revolution in 1917, Steffens became an advocate for communist principles. Losing much of his support in America because of his revolutionary beliefs, he spent much of the 1920s in Europe. In 1931 he published his AUTOBIOGRAPHY, which was a huge success, and he spent the next few years until his death in 1936 lecturing across the country. More than anything else, Steffens wanted people to think seriously about society and politics; he never joined the Communist party: "I am not a Communist," he said once. "I merely think that the next order of society will be socialist and that the Communists will bring it in and lead it." He was wrong about that, and not even Kaplan, writing in 1974, could know just how wrong. He's a beautiful writer, though, and makes his subject interesting and important. It's a delightful biography.

This is not the most recent bio, but it remains worthy. S. was reared in a CA that was largely empty and held many who remembered the gold rush. he studied in late Victorian Germany. K. has a fine portrait of German education at that time. It became the world standard.
S. became a journalist from necessity. He became famous as a muckraker. The Shame of the Cities is an enduring classic. S. also realized that the "regulars" offered things that the reformers did not, notably help for individuals.
For those involved in the New Left of the 60s there were holdovers from the Old Left. Steffens had been a mentor to them; he, in turn, went back to the days of Big Bill Haywood and Gene Debs. S. was a remarkable mentor. Two of his proteges were John Reed and Walter Lippman. the former is buried in the Kremlin. The latter was a conservative journalist for years, ending as an anti-war liberal in the 60s. a must read, the Frank Rich of his era. S. was a mentor to many others. he did not teach people what to think but how.
Until he became politically unacceptable, S.'s autobiography was a standard college text.
never a joiner, S. supported the Soviet experiment. He was tired of liberals who could do little more than think and talk and fail to act.
A good account of a fascinating life.