In a moment of blissful impulse I picked up a copy of Upton Sinclair’s book The Jungle. If you are like me then you think of The Jungle as that book about the meat industry. It’s the sort of book that gets assigned in high school biology or english classes.
This is ironic since the book is about much more than what goes into a hotdog in 1906 Chicago. To be sure, Sinclair nails the “beef trust” and the “packers.” However, at a more profound level there is a critique of the injustice experienced by the “huddled masses” who ca(o)me to the United States seeking the American dream. And deeper still, it is a critique of turn-of-the-century capitalism from a leftist/socialist position.
More to come…
Jeff Gissing 