Walter Lippmann and the American Century — 4 Muckrakers and Socialists

1. 1. Lippmann quit the Boston Common because he found the work mechanical and uneducational, merely restating facts without meaning.
2. 2. Lincoln Steffens hired Lippmann as his assistant for an investigation of financial power, betting he could turn an intelligent college graduate into a good journalist.
3. 3. Lippmann and Steffens uncovered that the anatomy of big business mirrored Tammany Hall, with power concentrated in individuals not in official seats, ultimately leading to J.P. Morgan's banking house.
4. 4. The muckrakers' criticisms were deep but their solutions shallow, as they celebrated preindustrial capitalism and failed to address fundamental changes in the economic structure.
5. 5. Steffens proved Greenwich, Connecticut, was as corrupt as any city, using Lippmann's research and a black gardener to gather evidence, then delivering a sermon on Christian redemption.
6. 6. Lippmann later criticized Steffens for intellectual laziness and an evangelical, paradoxical style that detached from reality.
7. 7. Lippmann's socialism was pragmatic and anti-doctrinaire; he favored liberal-mindedness over radical creeds and supported Woodrow Wilson over Eugene Debs.
8. 8. Lippmann's experience as Mayor Lunn's aide in Schenectady disillusioned him with practical politics, leading him to blame Lunn's timidity and the unripeness of voters for socialism.
9. 9. Lippmann grew concerned about the 'great dull mass of people who just don't care' and the tyranny of public opinion, which he found more corrupting than financial power.
10. 10. At age 22, Lippmann had already accumulated significant experience: cub reporter, assistant to Steffens, columnist, and four months in local politics, leading him to write a book on politics.