"The Jungle" by Upton Sinclair

Is Socialism all bad all the time??? As with most questions to which the answer is seemingly obvious, the answer to this question is complex. America, in its mid-20th century greatness, was partially built on the labor movement. The labor movement was, and is a Socialist phenomenon. Without it, America would never have known the post-war economic boom that created the biggest and most consumer-centered economy in the history of the world. This book is about America before the labor movement. Read it with both your eyes and your mind open.

The Jungle is a 1906 novel written by the American journalist and novelist Upton Sinclair (1878–1968). Sinclair wrote the novel to portray the lives of immigrants in the United States in Chicago and similar industrialized cities. Many readers were most concerned with his exposure of health violations and unsanitary practices in the American meatpacking industry during the early 20th century, based on an investigation he did for a socialist newspaper.

The book depicts working-class poverty, the lack of social supports, harsh and unpleasant living and working conditions, and a hopelessness among many workers. These elements are contrasted with the deeply rooted corruption of people in power. A review by the writer Jack London called it, "the Uncle Tom's Cabin of wage slavery.