The Jungle

I have wanted to read this book for years, but with all of the history books that I bought sitting on my bookshelf, I thought it more prudent to read them first.

Then I went out and bought The Jungle and put it on my bookshelf. Then I forgot that I bought it. Then a friend loaned me a copy of The Jungle. And I read it. Then I found the copy that I bought. It's tough getting old.

The Jungle was written by Baltimore native Upton Sinclair in 1906 and focuses on an immigrant family from Lithuania who move to Chicago to improve their lives. They get jobs with the meat packing companies and quickly buy a house. They think that they are moving up quickly, only to have their lives crushed by the brutal reality of political and business corruption in Chicago.

The book is most famous for its detailed descriptions of the meat packing industry including the slaughter and processing of the animals, and the horid working conditions. This book is to the meat packing industry what Moby Dick was to the whaling industry. Lots of details.

As a result of the book there was a public outcry about the quality of meat and the conditions that the workers were made to endure and meat sales tumbled. This outcry led to the passing of the Meat Inspeaction Act and the Pure Food and Drug Act of 1906, in addition to the creation of what would eventually become the Food and Drug Administration.

While the premise of the book is simple - the absolute ruin of a family, I found the facts about the writing of the book absolutely fascinating. Sinclair, a card-carrying Socialist, set out to expose the labor conditions of the industry. He disguised himself and got hired by one of the companies and worked there for 7 weeks in order to gain insight and eventually wrote his book.

Though his objective was to expose the working conditions and the labor strife, he actually did little to help that, but was the catalyst to a revolution in food processing. Years later in an interview he joked that he was aiming for the heart, but hit the stomach.

I enojoyed 97% of the book. The last 2 chapters Sinclair must have been smoking the whacky weed because he goes off into this tangent about a speech given by a socialist. This goes on and on. And on and on. Did I mention that it also goes on and on?

The speech blithers about how workers can take control of the means of production and everyone will be happy. Everyone will be equal. The collective will determine what needs to be produced and will determine the best means to achieve the goals of production. His argument is unrealistic and he fails to understand the basic human desire to compete. No one will be equal.

Additionally, with competition, bad products will not be purchased and these companies will fail (unless, of course, the Obama Administration continues to save them). Competition, when allowed to operate freely, but fairly, will better a society. We can all observe the sucess of Socialism\Communism throughout Eastern Europe during the post-World War II era. It didn't work.

So my recomendation is to read this book, but stop reading once he gets to the chapter where he goes to listen to the speech by the Socialists. It will drive you nuts. Or, on the other hand, read it and realize what a screwball Sinclair really was. He truly believed the stuff he wrote.

The Jungle can be purchased on Amazon.com or at any bookstair for very little money.