Indeed, when peer and fellow socialist writer Jack London received a copy of the novel, he predicted that it would turn “thousands” to socialism as it depicted “what our country really is: the home of oppression and injustice, a nightmare of misery, an inferno of suffering”.Ĭontrary to his objective, however, the publication of The Jungle lead to public outrage about the unsanitary conditions depicted in the meat production industry – a description that lasted only twelve pages in an over four-hundred-page novel – rather than a commentary on the injustice endured by the working class. Sinclair’s The Jungle follows the story of an immigrant family, who moved to Chicago in search of a better life, only to be met with poverty, death, and despair, in large part because of the terrible working conditions they endured, and the meagre wages they were afforded.Ī novel written to illuminate the inhumane working conditions endured by the proletariat working in industries such as the meatpacking industry, Sinclair hoped that his expose of the unjust treatment of workers – those who would now be described as ‘blue collar’, an evolution of the phrase ‘white collar’ that Sinclair himself coined – would incite Americans to embrace Socialism. In 1906, socialist writer and political activist Upton Sinclair published his novel The Jungle, which became an instant bestseller and resulted in a major societal shift towards the modern regulatory environment seen in the US today. Upton Sinclair on the Working World and his Accidental Push for a Regulatory State So, as an early birthday present to myself I bring you this piece written by Catherine Hamilton. Unfortunately, other than a sporadic appreciation for Kafka – the source of the name of this blog – I haven’t done a great job at that.

Neuroscience suggests that reading literary fiction helps people develop empathy, theory of mind, and critical thinking.

One of the ideas in my mind when I first started this blog almost three years ago was to explore some of the literature that asks the hard questions that reading will make us better quality thinkers.

Upton sinclair's novel the jungle