Today we learned about the horrible conditions in American meat packing plants around the turn of the century. We also discussed the dangerous levels of alcohol and narcotics in American medicines. The Muckrakers, investigative reporters, helped to bring these problem to the American people. Upton Sinclair, the author of The Jungle, becomes very famous with his book about Meat Packinghouses in America.
The Jungle becomes an important book in history because it reveals these horrible working conditions and disgusting things that happened in preparing food for American consumers. Stories of unsanitary conditions, rat and feces in sausage and the use of dead or diseased animals for food permeate The Jungle.
Homework: Read in Text 649-653
Links of Interest:
The Muckrakers (What and Who were they??)
Biography of Upton Sinclair
The Jungle: The Complete Novel
