The “Man with the Muck Rake” appears in John Bunyan’s Pilgrim’s Progress as a person who only looks down gathering filth. His vision is fixed on carnal, not on spiritual matters. By seeking out what is disagreeable, he is blind to divine grace.
In a speech on April 15th, 1906 President Theodore Roosevelt referred to this passage when he acknowledged that men with ‘muck rakes’ may be indispensable to social well-being, but that applies only if they know “when to stop raking the muck.” There is a rich Anglo-American tradition of muckraking that has been instrumental in exposing injustice and corruption. Today, investigative journalism is under threat. [Read more…] about Slum Tours and Muckrakers in London and New York
In the course of the nineteenth century, powerful and relatively stable explosives were developed. Dynamite became synonymous with radicalism and the moniker “dynamitist” preceded that of terrorist.
In 1912, investigative journalist Alfred Henry Lewis published The Apaches of New York, an anecdotal narrative of notorious gangs in the Lower East Side of Manhattan.
European starlings are one of the most common bird species in the United States. They are known for their stunning aerial displays (murmerations), but many observers consider them a curse.
In 1850, after a long journey, a large German family sailed from Hamburg into New York Harbour. There was no Statue of Liberty to welcome them. Newcomers faced no questions or restrictions. There was no Castle Garden (opened in 1855), no Ellis Island (opened in 1892) – they simply made their way and settled in the city.
A significant aspect of the 1920s in London was the proliferation of unlicensed clubs that operated on the fringe of criminality. Lawmakers were determined to crack down on out-of-hours drinking, but youngsters beat them by organising all-night bottle parties.
Say caricature, think politics – ever since the age of James Gillray and the British mockery of Napoleon, caricaturists have made a career out of political commentary. To this day, their work appears on the editorial pages of newspapers or magazines.
Before the mid-eighteenth century, turtles were largely untried as edibles in North America. For considerable time, the turtle was assumed to be poisonous. An infernal creature, a “resident of hell,” it should not be cultivated for food.
The history of musical taste in the United States has a Germanic flavor. The symphony orchestras in Philadelphia, New York City, and Boston were founded by German-Americans. The impact of Richard Wagner’s operas is still apparent. A patch of the Bronx contains locations such as Lohengrin Place, Siegfried Place, Parsifal Place, and Valhalla Drive. 
In 1693, Leicestershire-born immigrant William Bradford was appointed public printer for New York. Living in Pearl Street, Manhattan, he published from his offices in Hanover Square the first book with a New York imprint, entitled New-England’s Spirit of Persecution Transmitted to Pennsylvania by Quaker author George Keith.