The History of Journalism from Gutenberg to the Muckrakers

This course combines a survey of journalistic literature with practical lessons in how to write well, in which students will aspire to bring historical subjects to life through vivid prose. Along the way, students will examine the story of journalism from the advent of the printing press in the 15th century to the birth of investigative reporting at the turn of the 20th century. Representative readings include well-known journalists such as John Milton, Daniel Defoe, Addison and Steele, Jonathan Swift, Samuel Johnson, Benjamin Franklin, James T. Callender, William Lloyd Garrison, Frederick Douglass, Mark Twain, Henry Morton Stanley, Nellie Bly, Stephen Crane, and Ida Tarbel. The course also will pay special attention to journalism at the time of the American founding and the Civil War.