The end of the nineteenth century witnessed the emergence of four genres of the dissident press propelled by a gallery of larger-than-life individuals who were concerned that the United States was not fulfilling its birthright as the exemplar of democratic principles.
These often-idiosyncratic men and women, whose thinking was not in step with the vast majority of society, feared that dangerous forces were at work in the nation—and had to be stopped.
The culprits that the various dissident journalists struggled to defeat seem, at first glance, to bear no relation to each other. The institution of marriage, for example, does not appear to be connected in any discernible way to the hanging of innocent black men. Further, neither holy matrimony nor unholy lynching is, on its face, linked to the Industrial Revolution and the burgeoning growth of capitalism that took place during the late 1800s.
And yet the dissident journalists who surfaced either slightly before or slightly after the nation’s 100th birthday shared the common vision that the U.S. Constitution had so poignantly articulated: “To form a more perfect union.” What’s more, these reform-minded men and women were determined to make that powerful manifesto much more than a hollow phrase.