Background information

on

The Jungle by

Upton Sinclair

b

Upton Sinclair(1878-1968)

•DF

“Impoverished Lithuanian immigrants the Rudkus family are wage slaves to the Chicago meat-packing industry,

working in appalling conditions under non-existent or unsafe sanitary

practices. Sinclair immersed himself in the community of these people and

his muckraking exposé details the shocking methods employed in procuring 'human grade' meat products. Harshly critical of the

capitalist industrialist system, it led to meat inspection legislation and the

Pure Food and Drug Act of 1906. Sinclair personally sent a copy of his

book to then American President Franklin Delano Roosevelt.” (The

Literature Network)

Lithuanian Immigrants Come to Chicago

Chicago Meat-packing industry

•Packingtown=Back of the Yards=Stockyards

•Near 47th and Western