Brief introduction of Lincoln Steffens's life

Lincoln Steffens was born in a businessman's family in San Francisco on April 6, 1986. The ancestors were German immigrants and became local dignitaries during the California Gold Rush. His house was later sold to the state government and became the governor's residence. It was used until Ronald Reagan became governor, and later it was preserved as a monument. His family had intended to train him to do business in the sea, but he had no interest in money and always rejected business activities in his heart. 1885 entered the university of California, majoring in history. 1889 After graduating from the University of California, Berkeley, he studied psychology and ethics in famous European universities such as Leipzig University in Germany and Paris University in France, and began his study tour in Europe. 1892, Stephens returned to the United States with four German university degrees and his wife he met in Paris. Because his father cut off his financial resources, in order to support his family, he became a reporter in the news department of new york Evening Post. Stephens once joined the Wall Street Report Group of the newspaper and published a series of in-depth reports, which initially established his position in the Evening Post.

Stephens' most successful work in the Evening Post was police news, during which he became good friends with the then police chief and later President theodore roosevelt. When Stephens was a reporter for Evening Post and Business Information, he found a lot of evidence that the business community bought politicians for privileges. 190 1 year, he was transferred to Macclure magazine founded by Samuel Sidney Macclure of Irish origin as the editorial director. During Macclure, he found that his real specialty was to become a reporter and write articles to expose the darkness of the city government. So Stephens set out from Missouri City to investigate the political situation in Minneapolis, Cleveland, new york, Chicago, Philadelphia, Delfia and Pittsburgh. He found that politicians and entrepreneurs formed alliances, colluded with each other and controlled the government everywhere. Upon his return, Stephens immediately published what he saw and heard in Macclure magazine, and published it as a book with the title of 1904, the shame of the city. Stephens then studied the political situation in several states, and the research results were published in Macclure Magazine at 1905 and 1906, and compiled into Struggle for Autonomy at 1906. Later, he published The Upward Architect (1996 Stephens has investigated the political shady situation in 16 big cities and 1 1 states, and has become a nationally recognized expert on corruption. But he believes that compared with more professional prosecutors, he is not an expert in investigation. He said that he just went to the place where reformist prosecutors did a lot of work, picked up the results they obtained through hard work and adventure, and recorded and understood the evidence they obtained. His speeches all over the country were welcomed by the audience. He asks questions rather than answers. He used cartoon satire instead of moral condemnation to let the audience know about political corruption such as seeking personal gain in public affairs. As an important figure in the shady movement, Stephens frequented the officialdom and made friends with dignitaries, but his role was not misplaced because of unrealistic arrogance. Although he did not fully meet the standards put forward by John Delane (18 17- 1879), the press and publication circles should never form a close or binding alliance with contemporary politicians. But he doesn't pretend to be the uncrowned king, but thinks he is a professional who works in a specific range, that is, a reporter and a writer, that's all. In his autobiography, he wrote that as a writer, not a detective, my job is to select a part from this pile of materials to explain the true face of an American state.

Stephens trained a new generation of journalists and successors for the shady movement and subsequent press conferences. He attaches great importance to finding new people with political vision from college students. With his support, walter lippmann and john reid, two outstanding figures of Harvard University, entered the press. Stephens and Lipman, who was in his early twenties, jointly wrote a report on corruption in Greenwich, which is an immortal work. Lippmann once expressed his gratitude to Stephens in this way: I will remember your teachings all my life. If I can understand and admire a person instead of being jealous or disdainful of him in the future, it's all because of you ... you gave me a chance to stand out, you know, what this means to a person facing a ruthless world.

After the shady movement ended, his attention shifted to the Mexican Revolution and the Russian October Revolution. He interviewed Lenin during his trip to Petrograd. In a letter to a friend, he wrote: I see the future and he can work. After that, he continued to study revolutionary politics in Europe and became a legend in the eyes of young Americans who immigrated abroad. /kloc-returned to China for settlement in 0/927. His autobiography, which took five years to write in a humorous style, was published in 193 1 and was a great success. It is called a classic about his life experience and the essence and skills of corruption by the Encyclopedia Britannica. Stephens died in Carmel, California, on August 9, 1936 at/kloc-0.