By Upton Sinclair
 Born in Baltimore on September 20, 1878
 Alcoholic father moved the family to New York in
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1888
His own family was extremely poor, but spent periods
of time with his wealthy grandparents
Extremely intelligent and at the age of 14 entered the
New York City College
Funded his college education by writing for
newspapers and magazines
In 1902 met members of the Socialist Party of America
and soon after became a committed socialist
In 1904 was commissioned by the journal, Appeal to
Reason, to write a novel about immigrant workers in
Chicago’s meat packing industry
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Was given $500 allowance by the
journal’s owner , and after seven weeks
came up with The Jungle
The Jungle was rejected by six publishers
Sinclair published the book on his own
and after advertising in the journal,
Appeal to Reason, had orders for 972
books
Doubleday Publishers hear of the order
and decide to publish the book; The
Jungle is an immediate success
President Roosevelt reads the novel and
passes Pure Food and Drugs Act (1906)
and the Meat Inspection Act (1906)
Sinclair later wrote in journals, wrote
novels, became famous muckracker and
joined socialist party and unsuccessfully
ran for the governor of California
Died November 25, 1968
Reactions to novel
 “ I aimed at the public’s heart, and by accident I hit it
in the stomach.” – Upton Sinclair
 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h2ppaJwQ9UM&fe
ature=related
 1906 Upton Sinclair's novel The
Jungle exposed unsanitary and inhumane
conditions in Chicago area
slaughterhouses. Reported meat sales fell 50
percent and took years to recover. As is true today,
the highest quality, safest meat to eat was grown
on the small mixed farms that dotted much of the
American landscape.
Progressive Movement
 The Progressive Party was a factor in the presidential campaigns
of three men — Theodore Roosevelt, Robert La Follette, and
Henry Wallace.
 Roosevelt struck out on his own and formed the first Progressive
Party, saying he was as fit as a bull moose, from which came the
colloquial name "Bull Moose Party." His platform called for tariff
reform, stricter regulation of industrial combinations, women’s
suffrage, prohibition of child labor, and other reforms.
 The Progressive Movement was an effort to cure many of the ills
of American society that had developed during the great spurt of
industrial growth in the last quarter of the 19th century
 The success of progressivism owed much to publicity generated
by the muckrakers, writers who detailed the horrors of poverty,
urban slums, dangerous factory conditions, and child labor,
among a host of other ills.
 From Civil War to 1920s, Chicago is the country’s largest meatpacking center
 Europeans brought cattle and hogs to North America and slaughtered them
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only as meat was needed
Since beef was difficult to preserve, cattle were killed year round and the meat
sold and consumed while still fresh
Hogs were killed only in cold weather; their fat was rendered into lard and their
flesh carved into hams, shoulders, and sides, which were covered with salt and
packed in wooden barrels. Packers utilized hides, but blood, bones, and
entrails usually went into the nearest body of running water
By 1840 Cincinnati led all other cities in pork processing and proclaimed itself
Porkopolis
Chicago won that title during the Civil War
To alleviate the problem of driving cattle and hogs through city streets, the
leading packers and railroads incorporated the Union Stock Yard and Transit
Company in 1865 and built an innovative facility south of the Chicago city
limits
 Accessible to all railroads serving Chicago, the huge stockyard received 3
million cattle and hogs in 1870 and 12 million just 20 years later
 Pork packers such built large plants west of the stockyards, developed ice-
cooled rooms so they could pack year round, and introduced steam hoists to
elevate carcasses and an overhead assembly line to move them
 Chicago packers were preserving meat in tin cans, manufacturing an
inexpensive butter substitute called oleomargarine, and, with the help of
chemists, turning previously discarded parts of the animals into glue, fertilizer,
glycerin, ammonia, and gelatin
 Upton Sinclair's sensational novel The Jungle (1906) led to the Meat Inspection
Act, and Pure Food and Drug Act which put federal inspectors in all
packinghouses whose products entered interstate or foreign commerce
 Factory farming is a term referring to the process of raising livestock in
confinement at high stocking density, where a farm operates as a factory
 The main product of this industry is meat, milk and eggs for human
consumption
 The majority of the animals that are raised for food live miserable lives in
intensive confinement in dark, overcrowded facilities, commonly called
"factory farms”
 Animals today raised on factory farms have had their genes manipulated and
pumped full of antibiotics, hormones and other chemicals to encourage high
productivity
 Setting – Chicago Packing town/early 1900s
 Genre – muckracking fiction
 Point of View – Third person narrator
 Protagonist – Jurgis
 American Dream – Jurgis and Gatsby