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It Took a Novel, 'The Jungle,' to Expose Plants

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From: The Washington Post
Date: 20060514
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When Upton Sinclair wrote "The Jungle," he wanted to draw attention to the plight of workers. It didn't work out that way.

"I aimed at the public's heart, and by accident I hit it in the stomach," he said.

Sinclair was a young Socialist who went to Chicago in 1904 to write an expose of abysmal working conditions in the stockyards. He lived among immigrant meatpackers and made clandestine visits to plants.

In 1906, "The Jungle" was published, shocking the nation and President Theodore Roosevelt with its depiction of meatpacking as a filthy, unsafe and grueling industry.

In March, an article in ...

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