Ida Tarbell and the magazine that helped break up Standard Oil

Income disparities, technology-induced displacement of workers, and political corruption were at the heart of America’s Gilded Age in the late 19th century. While “yellow journalism” exploited scandals and spread falsehoods, some reform-minded journals set out to expose society’s ills through investigative reporting.

While little remembered today, McClure’s was a landmark magazine and a vivid reminder of the power of journalists to expose wrongdoing and compel change. In “Citizen Reporters: S.S.