The Jungle

Upton Sinclair’s dramatic and deeply moving story exposed the brutal conditions in the Chicago stockyards at the turn of the nineteenth century and brought into sharp moral focus the apalling odds against which immigrants and other working people struggled for their share of the American dream. Denounced by the conservative press as an un-American libel on the meatpacking industry, the book was championed by more progressive thinkers, including then president Theodore Roosevelt, and was a major catalyst to the passing of the Pure Food and Meat Inspection act, which has tremendous impact to this day.

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About the Contributors

Upton Sinclair (1878–1968) was a Pulitzer Prize–winning author. The Jungle helped in the passage of the pure-food laws during the Progressive Era.

Eric Schlosser is a journalist and the New York Times bestselling author of Fast Food Nation. He began his journalism career at the Atlantic Monthly.

Charles Burns, a former contributor to Art Spiegelman’s Raw magazine, is an illustrator whose work has included the covers of major magazines and CDs. His most well-known comics are Black Hole, Big Baby, and Skin Deep.