Sinclair asserts that American capitalist industrialization promotes a legal form of slavery in which the working class is forced into intolerably inhumane labor conditions in order to merely subsist. Despite being stripped of any human rights and driven like slaves, workers could never rest assured that their job position or less-than-minimal wages were protected. Upon being chosen as one of the “lucky few” to secure a job, workers toiled under the most base labor conditions for wages that could barely support a single person, much less an entire family. Compelled by sheer survival with no hope of earning a profit, Industrial Age workers had no choice but to stand in line for months praying to be selected for work in one of the filthy, overcrowded factories that filled the Chicago stockyard district.

According to Sinclair, the Beef Trust ruthlessly exploited workers, subjecting them to a grueling fate worse than that experienced by chattel slaves. I'll do what I can to get the best price.In his evocative exposé detailing the evils of the Chicago meatpacking industry, The Jungle, Upton Sinclair launches a searing indictment of wage slavery. If buying more than one item in my shop, contact me to see about combing shipping. No dust jacket.įeel free to ask questions. The 1st page, next to the front inside cover, has a written inscription that reads, 'To Father xmas '06 (name).' The pages are excellent - not tears or writing (other than what was already noted). The inside cover shows the number of this book: 632. The publisher name, on the spine, is a bit worn. The outside cover has minor wear to the top and bottom edges of the spine. Sinclair had stated, 'I aimed at the public's heart, and by accident hit its's stomach.' The laws he created are the Pure Food and Drug Act, and the Meat Inspection Act. His in depth details of the conditions, caused Theodore Roosevelt to put into effect new laws for the food industry. He worked undercover, in Chicago meatpacking stockyards, in order to write about the food produced there, as well as the awful conditions for the workers. Originally Sinclair had intended to write about the lives of immigrants who traveled to the United States, and living in Chicago. This book was published by Doubleday Page & Company, New York, 1906.

This book is titled, 'The Jungle,' by Pulitzer Prize winning journalist, Upton Sinclair.

The jungle upton sinclair first edition