E-Mail ThisDear Ron,
Here's the skinny on Upton Sinclair and The Jungle:
"Sinclair wrote The Jungle to ignite a socialist movement on behalf of America's workers. He did not even pretend to have actually witnessed or verified the horrendous conditions he ascribed to Chicago packing houses. Instead, he relied heavily on both his own imagination and hearsay. Indeed, a congressional investigation at the time found little substance in Sinclair's allegations.8"
www.independent.org/newsroom/article.asp?id=190
Best, Michael
I remember having to read The Jungle in school for a 7th grade history
class. It was taught not as literature or fiction, but as history. And
this was in rural Texas, the heart of cattle country. I found it not just
distasteful, but poorly written and a remarkably transparent political
tract. After witnessing stomach turning horrors in the meatpacking plants
of Chicago, and sinking to the lowest level of despair, a poor Lithuanian
immigrant attends a socialist meeting and is converted to the cause of
"social justice." Instantly, he discovers the magic of collectivism, and he
is no longer poor because his comrades share all that they own, he is no
longer hungry because they all combine their resources for the benefit of
all, and he exposes the corruption of the wealthy slaughterhouse owners and
has them investigated by the government. And, of course, socialism cures
everyone's ills and they all lived happily ever after.
More fantasy than history, but less entertaining than even the worst
melodrama H.G. Wells ever wrote.
Terry