Cultural Writing. Here is the autobiography of one of the world's first celebrity journalists: Lincoln Steffens (1866-1936), a man whose writing was so notorious that President Theodore Roosevelt coined a term for it—muckraking. THE AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF LINCOLN STEFFENS is the story of a cranky and brilliant reporter with a passion for examining the complex and contradictory conditions that breed corruption, poverty, and misery. As sch, this books is an antidote to the spin doctors, pundits, and talking heads who discourage us from ever reading past a headline or challenging the status quo. Lincoln Steffens is an inspiration to all socially engaged citizens today. With an introduction by Thomas C. Leonard.
| Foreword | xiii | |
| Part I | A Boy on Horseback | |
| I | When I Was an Angel | 3 |
| II | My Savage Stage | 11 |
| III | A Miserable, Merry Christmas | 17 |
| IV | A Boy on Horseback | 24 |
| V | The Sporting Age | 34 |
| VI | A Painter and a Page | 42 |
| VII | The Neely Farm | 51 |
| VIII | A Prince and a Cowboy | 59 |
| IX | I Get Religion | 68 |
| X | I Become a Hero, Save a Life | 77 |
| XI | I Get a Colt to Break In | 86 |
| XII | I Become a Drunkard | 94 |
| XIII | Napoleon | 101 |
| XIV | All Through with Heroism | 106 |
| XV | Preparing for College | 111 |
| XVI | I Go to College | 117 |
| XVII | I Become a Student | 124 |
| XVIII | Berlin: Philosophy and Music | 129 |
| XIX | Heidelberg: There Is No Ethics | 134 |
| XX | Munich: There Are No Artists | 140 |
| XXI | Leipzig: Music, Science, Love | 146 |
| XXII | Over the Alps to Paris | 153 |
| XXIII | Paris, London-Home | 159 |
| Part II | Seeing New York First | |
| I | I Become a Reporter | 169 |
| II | Wall Street | 179 |
| III | Bulls and Bears | 187 |
| IV | The Police | 197 |
| V | Clubs, Clubbers, and Clubbed | 208 |
| VI | Dr. Parkhurst's Vice Crusade | 215 |
| VII | The Underworld | 221 |
| VIII | Bosses: Political and Financial | 231 |
| IX | The Ghetto | 239 |
| X | The Lexow Police Investigation | 247 |
| XI | Roosevelt and Reform | 255 |
| XII | Schmittberger: An Honest Policeman | 266 |
| XIII | Saving Schmittberger | 274 |
| XIV | I Make a Crime Wave | 285 |
| XV | I Inherit a Fortune | 292 |
| XVI | I Become a Capitalist | 302 |
| XVII | Remaking a Newspaper | 311 |
| XVIII | A Happy Newspaper Staff | 320 |
| XIX | Getting Old Bill Devery | 327 |
| XX | The Cuban War and T.R. | 338 |
| XXI | Colonel Roosevelt as Governer | 344 |
| Part III | Muckraking | |
| I | From Newspaper to Magazine | 357 |
| II | St. Louis, a City Inside Out | 365 |
| III | The Shame of Minneapolis | 374 |
| IV | I Achieve Fame and Something Better | 385 |
| V | The Shamelessness of St. Louis | 392 |
| VI | Pittsburgh: Hell with the Lid Lifted | 399 |
| VII | Philadelphia: A Defeated People | 407 |
| VIII | The Dying Boss | 416 |
| IX | Chicago: An Example of Reform | 422 |
| X | New York: Good Government | 430 |
| XI | Cos Cob: An Art Colony | 436 |
| XII | The Shame of the States: Missouri | 443 |
| XIII | Illinois: The Progressive Movement | 450 |
| XIV | Wisconsin and Bob La Follette | 454 |
| XV | Rhode Island: The Good Old American Stock | 464 |
| XVI | Ohio: A Tale of Two Cities | 470 |
| XVII | The City On a Hill | 477 |
| XVIII | Cincinnati and Boss Cox | 482 |
| XIX | Some Theories: Big Business and Privileged Business | 489 |
| XX | New Jersey: A Trust Factory | 495 |
| XXI | T.R. as President | 502 |
| XXII | The President Is Shaved | 509 |
| XXIII | Ben Lindsey: The Kids' Judge | 516 |
| XXIV | Muckraking Myself-A Little | 521 |
| XXV | Life Insurance | 527 |
| XXVI | Making the "American Magazine" | 535 |
| XXVII | Timber Frauds in Oregon | 544 |
| XXVIII | San Francisco: A Labor Government | 552 |
| XXIX | How Hard It Is to Keep Things Wrong | 561 |
| XXX | Los Angeles and the Apple | 570 |
| XXXI | Free-Lancing in Washington, D.C. | 575 |
| XXXII | Wall Street Again | 583 |
| XXXIII | Cubs: Walter Lippmann, for Example | 592 |
| XXXIV | A Successful Failure | 598 |
| XXXV | The Muck I Raked in Boston | 604 |
| XXXVI | "Boston 1915" | 612 |
| XXXVII | Principals and Heelers | 621 |
| Part IV | Revolution | |
| I | Playing with Reds and Liberals in New York | 631 |
| II | Experimenting with Philanthropy and Education | 641 |
| III | Seeing Europe with Business Men-Greenwich Village | 648 |
| IV | Dynamite | 658 |
| V | Settling with Dynamiters' Case. An Experiment with "Big, Bad Men" | 670 |
| VI | The Churches Decide Against Christianity | 679 |
| VII | I Become a Goat | 690 |
| VIII | Europe: A Procession of Nations Marching to War | 702 |
| IX | Mexico: The First Revolution | 712 |
| X | Carranza and Madero | 722 |
| XI | Wilson and Mexico | 733 |
| XII | To Russia: A Second Revolution | 741 |
| XIII | The Russian Revolution | 747 |
| XIV | Kerenski | 757 |
| XV | Kerenski to Wilson | 764 |
| XVI | Preparing for Peace | 773 |
| XVII | The Peacemaker | 778 |
| XVIII | The Bullitt Mission to Moscow | 790 |
| XIX | The Peace that Was No Peace | 803 |
| XX | Mussolini | 812 |
| XXI | Experimental Europe | 821 |
| XXII | A European View of America | 830 |
| Part V | Seeing America at Last | |
| I | The Dynamiters Again | 841 |
| II | The New United States | 849 |
| III | Prohibition: A Hang-Over | 858 |
| IV | Prophecy | 865 |
| V | Falling Out of Bed | 872 |
| Index | 875 |
Overview
Cultural Writing. Here is the autobiography of one of the world's first celebrity journalists: Lincoln Steffens (1866-1936), a man whose writing was so notorious that President Theodore Roosevelt coined a term for it—muckraking. THE AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF LINCOLN STEFFENS is the story of a cranky and brilliant reporter with a passion for examining the complex and contradictory conditions that breed corruption, poverty, and misery. As sch, this books is an antidote to the spin doctors, pundits, and talking heads who ...