The 10 Best Books of Social Concerns by Journalists

Paterson, Judith, American Journalism Review

At least as far back as the penning of Thomas Paine's "Common Sense" in 1776, American journalists have been trying to reform society as well as inform it. Here are my favorite books that aim to make a difference:

The Shame of the Cities

By Lincoln Steffens (1904)

This collection of essays first published in McClure's magazine by the leading turn-of-the-century muckraker exposes municipal corruption in St. Louis, Minneapolis, Pittsburgh and Philadelphia, and reviews the partial success at cleaning up Chicago and New York. With careful documentation and hightoned prose Steffens names names and castigates America for creating institutions based on "graft and lawlessness...profit, not patriotism; credit, not honor; individual gain, not national prosperity; trade and dickering, not principle."

The Other America: Poverty in the United States

By Michael Harrington (1962) …

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Publication information: Article title: The 10 Best Books of Social Concerns by Journalists. Contributors: Paterson, Judith - Author. Magazine title: American Journalism Review. Volume: 16. Issue: 7 Publication date: September 1994. Page number: 59. © 2009 University of Maryland. COPYRIGHT 1994 Gale Group.

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