Lincoln Steffens

author

Lincoln Steffens

1866–1936

Best known as one of America’s original muckrakers, he helped define investigative journalism by exposing political corruption and pushing readers to look harder at how cities were run. His work combined sharp reporting, moral urgency, and a restless curiosity about power.

1 Audiobook

The Shame of the Cities

The Shame of the Cities

by Lincoln Steffens

About the author

Born in San Francisco in 1866, Lincoln Steffens became one of the most influential journalists of the Progressive Era. After studying in the United States and Europe, he built his career as a reporter and editor, eventually joining McClure’s Magazine, where he became known for deeply reported investigations into urban political corruption.

He is especially associated with The Shame of the Cities (1904), a collection of articles that examined corruption in American city governments and helped popularize the style of reporting later called muckraking. Rather than treating corruption as a local oddity, he argued that it reflected larger failures in public life, which gave his work unusual force and reach.

Later in life, Steffens continued writing about politics, reform, and revolution, and he published his widely read Autobiography in 1931. He died in 1936, but his reporting remains an important part of the history of investigative journalism in the United States.