Upton Sinclair

With the rising power of big businesses, the plight from poor urban workers became overlooked, forcing them to work long hours in detrimental environments. Progressive leaders realized that one who was homeless or starving forced themselves to take a job no matter how little they were paid or how dangerous the conditions became (The Gilded Age and Progressive Era). Jane Adams, co-founder of the Hull House looked upon the developing cities with deep sorrow. She saw “hideous human need and…

In the early 1900’s food safety was an issue that was never regulated or enforced. Until the day that Upton Sinclair recognized the severity of this issue and put a count on how many people were getting sick and dying from food poisoning. What has Food Safety evolved into today in the present compared to the early 1900’s? Food safety has drastically set rules, laws and regulations from the temperature of the meat your cooking down to the proper storage and utensils used to cook the food. In…

American dream. They are fooled into believing the government’s warm words about capitalism. Yet, when they arrive they describe Chicago to be dirty and smelly. “It is an elemental odor, raw and crude; it is rich, almost rancid, sensual and strong (Sinclair, 28)”. Sinclair’s ideas contrast what Carnegie believes is vital to a successful government, economy, and life. To begin, hard work does not always pay off in the end in this scenario. Hard work is required to achieve your goals and to earn…

One of our own, Upton Sinclair has now published his novel, The Jungle, in its entirety. Despite the “muckraking” as our very President might deem it, this novel is pivotal to the causes we believe in. Sinclair has used The Jungle, to simultaneously expose the problems layering our very federal and local governments, as well as the society in which we all partake in. His novel has forced the federal government to finally take action and begin to impose regulations on the Union Stockyards and the…

Ford was a Practitioner of the Gospel of Wealth was because of the thousands of jobs he provided and the high salaries given to his workers. Since the start of his company, Ford gave good wages to his employees. In the novel The Flivver King, by Upton Sinclair, the main character Abner was very hopeful about getting a job at the Ford Motor Company. When Abner is talking to Ford about getting hired, he explains that he works very hard at his current job but never gets promoted and has no future…

Realism’s Effect on American Core Values Before the twentieth century, writers such as Mark Twain, Upton Sinclair, and Stephen Crane revealed societal problems in order to initiate changes in America. These authors used realism, writing that is objective to flaws in society, and naturalism, which claims that impartial outside forces determine one’s fate, to create themes in their works. Twain’s novel, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, was written to expose racism and give meaning to an…

rather they are renters until they can fully pay off the house, which will take over eight years to accomplish. This situation makes it that much easier for the family to be evicted when they inevitably miss one of their many monthly payments. Upton Sinclair stated in chapter five, “...Nobody rose in Packingtown by doing good work. You could lay that down for a rule—if you met a man who was rising in Packingtown, you met a knave.” The author is trying to express that their are few to none when…

popular magazines were given the name muckrakers. They relied on investigative journalism reporting; they worked to expose social troubles and corporate, economic and political corruption in the United States. As mentioned before Ida Tarbell and Upton Sinclair were very famous muckrackers known for their work in magazines such as McClure’s of publisher S.S. McClure. Muckrackers raised awareness of social, economic and political issues, which led to the formation of reform groups across the…

Teddy Roosevelt was a man who saw the good and bad in everything, He created the square deal which allowed everyone to succeed and have the same amount of opportunities as the next person. For example, He read a book called The Jungle written by Upton Sinclair and he was disgusted and immediately started to reform our health guidelines for what we eat. He passed the Meat Inspection Act, which made it so that all meat made and sold, must be inspected before shipping out. He also created the Food…

Food and Drug Administration can be traced in 1848 at the Patent Office, when Lewis Caleb Beck was examining chemicals in agricultural products. Yet, The Food and Drug Administration began with the passage of the 1906 Pure Food and Drugs Act. Upton Sinclair, Samuel Hopkins, and the Chief Chemist of the Bureau of Chemistry in the Department of Agriculture, Harvey Washington Wiley, were able to express the needs for the act in The Jungle. This final push was exactly what was needed for the…