Lincoln Steffens

Lincoln Steffens with Senator La Follette (center), with maritime labor leader Andrew Furuseth (left), circa 1915.

Joseph Lincoln Steffens (April 6, 1866 – August 9, 1936) was an American journalist and one of the most famous and influential practitioners of the journalistic style called muckraking. He is also known for his 1921 statement, upon his return from the Soviet Union: "I have been over into the future, and it works." His more famous quote "I've seen the future, and it works" can be found on the titlepage of his wife's, Ella Winter, 1933 edition of Red Virtue.

Early life

Steffens was born in San Francisco, California, the son of Joseph Steffens, a wealthy businessman, and his wife, Elizabeth Louisa Symes. His parents went on to have three girls after his birth. He grew up in Sacramento, and studied in France and Germany after graduating from the University of California, Berkeley, where he was first exposed to radical political views.

On November 4, 1891 he married Josephine Bontecou.

Later life

At McClure's magazine, Steffens became part of the celebrated muckraking trio of himself, Ida Tarbell, and Ray Stannard Baker. He specialized in investigating government and political corruption, and two collections of his articles were published as The Shame of the Cities (1904) and The Struggle for Self-Government (1906), he also wrote The Traitor State, which criticized New Jersey for patronizing incorporation. In 1906, he left McClure's, along with Tarbell and Baker, to form American Magazine.

In The Shame of the Cities, Steffens sought to bring about political reform in urban America by appealing to the emotions of Americans. He tried to make them feel very outraged and "shamed" by showing examples of corrupt governments throughout urban America.

In 1910 he covered the Mexican Revolution and began to see revolution as preferable to reform. His wife, Josephine, died January 7, 1911. He went on to marry his second wife, Ella Winter, in August 1924. In 1919, he visited the Soviet Union together with William C. Bullitt and the Swedish Communist Karl Kilbom, and Steffens developed a short-lived enthusiasm for communism that had soured by the time he wrote his memoirs, published in 1931. He was a member of a group that came to be known as the California Writers Project, funded by the New Deal. Some of its members were socialist or communists, while others had little formal interest in politics. He died in 1936.

Legacy

Steffens is remembered as the most independent reporter of his age. He was willing to go out on a limb and challenge the federal government, exposing its secrets to the public as he advocated for change. He had a major impact on the public he wrote for and the way that they viewed their representatives. He was a charismatic individual who promoted radicalism at the local level. Steffens dedicated his life and his work to shaking things up and attempting to bring about great change.

References

ISBN links support NWE through referral fees

• Kaplan, Justin. Lincoln Steffens: A Biography. New York: Simon & Schuster, 1974.
• Lasch, Christopher. The American Liberals and the Russian Revolution. New York: Columbia University Press, 1962
• Schultz, Stanley K. "The Morality of Politics: The Muckrakers' Vision of Democracy." The Journal of American History 52, no. 3 (December 1965): 527-547. JSTOR Retrieved November 7, 2007.
• Steffens, Lincoln. 1889-1919. Vol. 1, The Letters of Lincoln Steffens. Edited by Ella Winter and Granville Hicks. New York: Harcourt, Brace, and Co., 1938.
• Steffens, Lincoln. 1920-1936. Vol. 2, The Letters of Lincoln Steffens. Edited by Ella Winter and Granville Hicks. New York: Harcourt, Brace, and Co., 1938.
• Steffens, Lincoln. Autobiography of Lincoln Steffens. Berkeley, CA: Heyday Books, 2005.
• Winter, Ella. Red Virtue: Human Relationships in the New Russia. London: Victor Gollancz LTD., 1933.

External links

• Lincoln Steffens bio Retrieved November 7, 2007.
• Lincoln Steffens quotes Retrieved November 7, 2007.
• Lincoln Steffens biography Retrieved November 7, 2007.

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