ABSTRACT
The 43-year-old David Graham Phillips had begun a career as a successful novelist following a stint as one of the best-known journalists of the progressive period. Phillips' work as a celebrity journalist helped lead to the direct election of United States senators. The progressive period survived Phillips' shooting but not entirely Theodore Roosevelt's characterization. The Progressive Movement that aimed at creating a more civil society was not one movement, but many at the federal government, state and local level. Roosevelt initially partnered with progressive-era journalists to achieve Square Deal outcomes. The efforts of reform-minded journalists to create a more civil society during the progressive period as a response to the rapid industrialization, immigration and urbanization of America was an effort to forge a new moral consensus at a time of growing moral ambiguity. Not only the sweatshop and the slum but also the American political and legal system was sites of progressive intervention.
