Shaking the Foundations: 200 Years of Investigative Journalism in America (Nation Books) [Paperback]

Bruce Shapiro (Editor), Pete Hamill (Preface)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 1560254335 | ISBN-13: 978-1560254331 | Publication Date: July 28, 2003

Great investigative journalism is present-tense literature: part detective story, part hellraising. This is the first anthology of its kind, bringing together outstanding (and often otherwise unavailable) practitioners of the muckraking tradition, from the Revolutionary era to the present day. Ranging from mainstream figures like Woodward and Bernstein to legendary iconoclasts such as I. F. Stone and Ida B. Wells-Barnett, the dispatches in this collection combine the thrill of the chase after facts with a burning sense of outrage. As American history, Shaking the Foundations offers a you-are-there chronicle of great scandals and debates as reporters revealed them to their contemporaries: Jim Crow and financial trusts, migrant labor and wars, witch-hunts and government corruption. As journalism, these readings—from writers as diverse as Henry Adams and Ralph Nader, Lincoln Steffens and Barbara Ehrenreich—are a source of inspiration for today's muckrakers. For the general reader, Shaking the Foundations reveals investigative journalism as a storytelling force capable of bringing down presidents, freeing the innocent, challenging the logic of wars, and exposing predatory corporations. Other selected contributors include Henry Adams, John Steinbeck, Upton Sinclair, Edward R. Murrow, Rachel Carson, Jessica Mitford, Susan Brownmiller, Anthony Lukas, Neil Sheehan, Drew Pearson, and Jack Anderson.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Arriving shortly after the New York Times's fall from grace at the hands of a fraudulent staff reporter, this collection of America's best investigative reporting may redeem not only that paper but the entire profession of journalism. Yale journalism professor Shapiro explains he sought to fill a void in the textbook industry; he "wanted material to illustrate essential reporting and narrative techniques... that would give some sense of the historical evolution of investigative journalism." He offers short introductions for each selection, elucidating the pieces' historical significance and transforming what could be a dry primer into an enjoyable compilation for general readers or history buffs. It includes the obvious choices: the Times's expos‚ of Boss Tweed and Tammany Hall corruption in the 1870s as well as its revelation of the Pentagon Papers a century later; the exposure of lynching by Ida B. Wells, a former slave turned advocate of blacks' and women's rights; and the work of legendary muckrakers from Lincoln Steffens to Woodward and Bernstein. But the book's definition of investigative reportage reaches farther than other collections of its kind (and, indeed, there aren't many), containing a sort of slave narrative in "History of the Amistad Captives," a factual novel by Herman Melville, and Ralph Nader's groundbreaking challenge to the auto industry. Wells begins her 1895 account as an appeal "to the sober sense of the American people" to refute the status quo, and it is essentially this spirit that motivates the volume's other journalists. It's been said that journalism is the first draft of history-if so, then this is a history of the writing of history.
Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Booklist

This is the first anthology to collect 200 years of investigative journalism by a wide range of reporters, highlighting the long tradition of advocacy and reform journalism. With samples of articles and essays, and excerpts from books and memoirs, Shapiro offers the reader a history of American social reform and investigative journalism. Among the reporters are Ida B. Wells, Nellie Bly, Lincoln Steffens, Upton Sinclair, I. F. Stone, Jack Anderson, Ralph Nader, Woodward and Bernstein, and others. The searing topics include slave mutiny, lynching, child labor abuses, government corruption, corporate greed, antitrust violations, war atrocities, and failures of the American justice system. The book is divided into five historical periods: 1798-1900, when journalistic exposure of skulduggery was in its infancy; the muckraking era of 1900-20; the "forgotten decades" of 1920-60; the modern heyday of investigative journalism, 1960-90; and 1990 to the present, a period with new directions in investigative reporting. Shapiro precedes each contribution with a biographical sketch of the reporter and the social change provoked by his or her disclosure. Vanessa Bush
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 544 pages
• Publisher: Nation Books (July 28, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1560254335
• ISBN-13: 978-1560254331
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6.1 x 1.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.6 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #139,838 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Shaking the Foundations is a Fascinating Read, December 5, 2009

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Area Woman (Los Angeles, CA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Shaking the Foundations: 200 Years of Investigative Journalism in America (Nation Books) (Paperback)

When school children learn all about Presidents' Day and the Revolutionary War in primary school they hear about the important men who invented America and its founding documents.

What they never learn about in primary school, or even in high school, is how writers, reporters and the printing press invented America through all variety of newspapers, pamphlets and print media that detailed the workings of the British government and fledgling governments in the Colonies.

We have all been inducted into the belief, even the pseudo-religion, that it was great men with great ideas who birthed this nation. But the founding fathers' primary means of communication was not public speaking. It was, in fact, the written word that gave birth to America just as surely as the Revolutionary War did.

It is in this spirit that journalist Bruce Shapiro has compiled a text of important and sometimes famous examples of investigative reporting in America. The first story from 1798 was written by that old ne'er do well, newspaper publisher Benjamin Franklin.

The excerpts Shapiro has included in this compilation are heartbreaking, maddening, educational, revelatory, inspiring and enlightening. He includes a short bio of the reporters and background leading up to each article to give each a sense of time and place. He also tells a bit about each reporter's life to lend an air of humanity to the journalist who sometimes risked his or her life to expose the bitter truth.

Some famous stories from this century are included. The Nixon era exposés penned by Woodward, Bernstein, and Jack Anderson are here. The first story of the My Lai Massacre is here as is the first story from the New York Times describing the Pentagon Papers.

Today's readers who have lost half of their retirement funds or their homes will be infuriated to read a story written by Drew Pearson in 1931 called "The Man Who Stayed Too Long." It is a detailed, brutal description of what happens when a greedy millionaire, Andrew Mellon (of Carnegie-Mellon fame), gets a job working for the president and how the policies he advised helped lead to the Great Depression. Mellon manipulates the wheels of government to make himself and his friends richer while his fellow Americans stand in line for soup for ten years. It is a story that illustrates the cyclical insanity of Wall Street, for we are living through duplicate circumstances today.

One theme that runs through the book with frustrating regularity is that the powerful cannot be trusted. You can read Nellie Bly's 1887 account of what America did with its mentally ill in that century. In a story from 1954 Stetson Kennedy goes undercover as a Klansman and witnesses the torture and murder of a Black cab driver, killed for picking up a White woman as a fare. The excerpt from "No Birds Sing" by Rachel Carson will shock readers who have grown up believing that large corporations care about the environment. It details how the pesticide DDT nearly annihilated the bird population of several states until it was finally banned in 1972 after a decade long fight.

Another compelling read is the 44-page story of a mine blast in Illinois in 1947 written by John Bartlow Martin called "The Blast in Centralia No. 5: A Mine Disaster That No One Stopped." The story details the hard life of coal miners who, even with a union, couldn't get anyone in power to listen to their warnings before their mine exploded and killed 111 of them.

This collection is not an easy read. Its descriptions of the follies and foibles of man through the centuries might leave readers in despair. The only hopeful aspect is the knowledge that these stories actually changed the world a little. They exposed injustice, cruelty, callousness, brutality, mayhem, incompetence and ignorance. Readers can track major changes in American society all brought about by the power of the pen. Fans of history, writing, journalism and politics will enjoy this book.