The Power of A Book

At Christmas time a popular question is what would you like for Christmas? I can remember one year the answer was Classics please, I love to read and the Classics are just that they are Classics, read through the ages. One book in particular I want to focus on, it changed the Food and Drug Acts in the United States and later on would help effect the labor issues that were occurring at the beginning of the 20th Century. The book was published in 1906 and the dynamics of this book pushed the Pure Food and Drug Act through that very same year; the book – Upton Sinclair’s The Jungle.

Upton Sinclair was born September 20, 1878 and died on November 25, 1968. He was a well-known socialist, humanitarian and political reformer. During his life Upton wrote 80 books, 20 plays and hundreds of articles on all kinds of political and social issues. Through all these works the one he is most remembered for is The Jungle. During his lifetime Upton Sinclair helped establish the League of Industrial Democracy, he started the California Branch of the ACLU (American Civil Liberties Union) and almost won the governship in California one year with a platform pushing for the end of poverty. This quote describes his passion for life and why he wrote what he wrote. “My efforts are to find out what is righteousness in the world, to live it, and try to help others live it.” Upton Sinclair

The Bantam Classic Edition of the book describes the Jungle and its author in the following, “Upton Sinclair, master of the “muckraking” novel, here explores the workingman’s lot at the turn of the century: the backbreaking labor, the injustices of “wage-slavery”, the bewildering chaos of urban life.” (Back Cover).

Muckrakers by definition are writers who exposed social evils in the 20th Century. The purpose behind the Jungle was primarily to try and help workers by telling the American people about the life a young Lithuanian immigrant and what he sees and learns working in “Packingtown”, the Chicago Stockyards upon arrival to America. Although the book did not have the desired effect of its author it had a significant impact on another area, Food. The outrage of the American people was so great upon reading this book that a full-scale investigation was launched by the United States Government; and the food and drug acts were passed through Congress. The reason we have the laws that help provide us with safe, uncontaminated food is because of this book. It helped start the ball moving in an important social area.

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