In the three decades preceding the Civil War, America experienced an era of reform movements: woman's rights, temperance, public education, Sunday schools, utopian communities, and the abolition of slavery, all of which had vociferous advocates. It seemed as if Americans had come of age and wanted to investigate new ideas for a better life. The new movements found a public voice in the newspapers, magazines, and books that were brought within the reach of many Americans by the adoption of the steam press. Led by such newspaper publishers as James Gordon Bennett and Horace Greeley, the penny press emerged with innovations in news-gathering and illustrating. At this starting point of modern journalism the precursor of today's magazines began to develop, although they were sometimes disguised as literary newspapers. The goal of these periodicals was to popularize good literature, and one man who became a symbol of this goal...