feb 26, 1906 - The Jungle

Description:

A novel written by muckraker Upton Sinclair, in which he describes the unpleasant living and working conditions of immigrants in Chicago and other large US cities, and proposes socialism as a cure for such social ills. However, what caught the public's attention the most was his depiction of the meat industry. Sinclair writes about how amoral and uncaring the workers were to the animals they slaughtered, and how unsanitary the conditions were in which meat was being prepared.The public was so disgusted by the book that they protested the government fix it. President Roosevelt conducted an investigation into the matter, and confirmed Sinclair's account. Congress then passed the Meat Inspection Act in 1906 to assure the public that their meat would be safe to eat.

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