The Jungle - Softcover

Sinclair, Upton

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1420952706 ISBN 13: 9781420952704

Publisher: Digireads.com, 2016

Synopsis

First published serially in 1905, “The Jungle” is American journalist Upton Sinclair’s dramatization of the harsh working conditions for and exploitation of immigrant workers in industrial cities like Chicago during the early part of the 20th century. Sinclair spent seven weeks prior to publication working ‘in cognito’ in the meatpacking plants of the Chicago stockyards gathering information for the novel. The work is principally concerned with Jurgis Rudkus, a Lithuanian immigrant trying to make ends meet in Chicago, and his family’s struggle for survival. Having come to America in want of a better life, Jurgis instead finds that a combination of poor working conditions, slave level wages, and mounting debt, offers little hope for it. While Sinclair, a noted socialist, showed the vast socio-economic divide between the haves and have-nots and the corrupt alignment of American politicians with the industrial-capitalist machine, the greater impact of the novel would be on reforming the health violations and unsanitary practices in the American meatpacking industry, which were brought to light by the work. Upton Sinclair’s “The Jungle” dramatized the plight of the working class in a way that no American novel before had and thus has established itself as one of the most important socialistic novels of all time. This edition is printed on premium acid-free paper.

About this title

From the Publisher

During his lifetime, Upton Sinclair authored dozens of books dealing with political and social questions, The Coal War and Oil! being two representative examples. Sinclair was also a socialist and political activist almost his entire adult life. After being massively outspent by business interests he narrowly missed being elected governor of California in 1936. The Jungle, written while he was still in his 20s, is by far his best known book.

From the Back Cover

An ardent activist, champion of political reform, novelist, and progressive journalist, Upton Sinclair is perhaps best known today for The Jungle his devastating expose of the meat-packing industry. A protest novel he privately published in 1906, the book was a shocking revelation of intolerable labor practices and unsanitary working conditions in the Chicago stockyards. It quickly became a bestseller, arousing public sentiment and resulting in such federal legislation as the Pure Food and Drug Act.-The brutally grim story of a Slavic family who emigrates to America, The Jungle tells of their rapid and inexorable descent into numbing poverty, moral degradation, and social and economic despair. Vulnerable and isolated, the family of Jurgis Rudkus struggles unsuccessfully to survive in an urban jungle.
A powerful view of turn-of-the-century poverty, graft, and corruption, this fiercely realistic American classic is still required reading in many history and literature classes. It will continue to haunt readers long after they've finished the last page."

About this edition

• Publisher: Digireads.com
• Publication date: 2016
• ISBN 10: 1420952706
• ISBN 13: 9781420952704
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 284