A Study On The Promotion Of American Anti - Monopoly Process By Shirley Revelation Movement

Muckraking Movement was a muckraking and criticism movement which aimed at social ills and corruption phenomenon happened in the American transitional period at the beginning of the 20th century. The muckrakers, most of whom are journalist and writer, had used mass media like magazines to reveal and flay the political corruption, food hygiene and the economic monopoly which existed extensively that time. The Muckraking Movement is also a mind emancipation movement. It had become one important part of Progressivism in America history, and play very important role in inspiring people and promoting social progress in that era.The reveal of monopoly phenomenon and its destructive effect was an important part of Muckraking Movement. American economy had developed at top speed after the Civil War, however, new social problems in social and economic fields had emerged constantly:the wreak havoc of Trust institute, serious corruption, the disorder of social core values system and so on. The Trust phenomenon in economic area had stood out:many big companies control the procedure from production to marketing, disrupting the market order, challenging the fair competitive principle in the market, hazarding the healthy functioning of American economy seriously. The famous books like History of the Standard Oil Company by Tarbell, and The Jungle by Sinclair are the representative works in revealing the Monopoly phenomenon, and they achieved good social results.Muckrakers had aroused the public to pay attention to the damage of Trust by consensus propaganda such as Muckraking works, and anti-trust had become the concern of the nation. Under the pressure of Muckraking Movement, Federal government had adopted several economic and legal measures to raise anti-trust campaign such as enacting anti-trust laws and setting up special section to deal with anti-monopoly issues, and obtained positive results.The research emphasis of this thesis is to investigate and analyze the positive role of Muckraking Movement in promoting American anti-trust movement, and illuminates its contribution on promoting American economy development and social progress. This thesis is composed of the following four parts.The first part mainly investigates the social history background of Muckraking Movement from the aspects of the development of American monopoly economy, the social contradiction in transitional period and the development of mass media, and briefly introduces the representative figures and main compositions of Muckraking Movement.The second part is about the reveal of Muckrakers on Trust phenomenon and its harm in American economic field. Taking the oil field and food safety for examples, it shows the function of Muckraking Movement on pressure from public opinion and inspiring people.The third part lays emphasis on the promotion of Muckraking Movement to the anti-trust legislative process. It mainly shows the measures Federal government took in law field and the foundation of government agencies after the Muckraking Movement, highlighting the contribution of Muckraking Movement on anti-trust process.The last part is about the evaluation of Muckraking Movement on the promotion of anti-trust process. It points out the important significance of the public opinions on a healthy economy and social progress and the reference for other countries from the successful experiences of American anti-trust.