One of twentieth-century America’s most politically influential novels, The Jungle is Upton Sinclair’s hard-hitting exposé of the meat-packing industry.

Journalist and novelist Upton Sinclair was a known muckraker who used his work to expose the horrific underbelly of the American government in the early 1900s. The Jungle is the fictional story of Jurgis Rudkus and his wife, Ona Lukoszaite. The couple immigrated to Chicago from Lithuania in the hopes of living the American Dream. Instead, they are met by the hardship and tragedy that awaited so many immigrants at the time. Jurgis secures a job in the meat-packing industry and quickly realises the disgusting treatment of animals and the horrendous working conditions that led to many injuries and deaths.

Prior to writing the powerful novel, Sinclair spent seven weeks working in the Chicago meat-packing industry. He used his research to expose the corrupt factories in his writing. Originally published in serial form in 1905 for Appeal to Reason, the socialist newspaper, The Jungle was published as a book in 1906. The novel caused such public outcry that Sinclair’s work played a large part in the introduction of the 1906 Meat Inspection Act in the US.

Read & Co. Classics has proudly republished this volume for the enjoyment of fans of socialist literature and those interested in the history of America’s meat industry.