Focus on: Corruption and social injusticeRaise the consciousness of AmericaMuckrakers

Upton Sinclair and The Jungle 1906

PROGRESSIVE JOURNALISM

Born in BaltimoreGrew up poor though

money on his mother’s side (stayed with grandparents due to mother-son relationship)

Gave him insight into how both the rich and the poor lived

BACKGROUND

Love for reading (5 yrs old) read every book that his mother

owned for a deeper understanding of the world.

Entered City College of New York (14 yrs old)

He wrote jokes, dime novels and magazine articles in boy's weekly

and pulp magazines to pay for his tuition.

He graduated in 1897 Columbia University Major - Law, but he was

more interested in writing, and he learned several languages including Spanish, German and French.

BACKGROUND CON’T

In 1904, Sinclair spent seven weeks in disguise, working undercover in Chicago's meatpacking plants to research his political fi ction exposé

When it was published two years later, it became a bestseller

INVESTIGATIVE WORK…

EXCERPT FROM THE JUNGLE

Extra:Video

Audio Online

Intro The Jungle:

Jurgis Rudkus -  A Lithuanian immigrant who comes to America with his wife, OnaThe couple and several relatives have come to Chicago in search of a better life and settle in Packingtown, the center of Lithuanian immigration and of Chicago’s meatpacking industry

Durham’s Canned Goods – National Household name

Jonas – Step-uncle of Jurgis

Antanas (Rudku) -  Jurgis’s father

Novel prompted President Theodore Roosevelt to order an investigation of Sinclair's allegations about unsanitary practices used the results of that investigation to pressure Congress into

approving new federal legislation to inspect meatpacking.

Pure Food and Drug Act (1906) Halted the sale of contaminated foods and medicines and called for truth in labeling

Meat Inspection Act (1906) The Act mandated cleaner conditions for meatpacking plants

Aftermath - Consumer Protection

"

A nauseating job, but it must be

done“

~Utica Saturday Globe