The Jungle

The Jungle, written in 1906 by Upton Sinclair shines a light on the lives of immigrants in Chicago as they slaved in unimaginable conditions within the stockyards of the meat industry while being exploited by law enforcement, landlords, gangs, and more.

This is easily one of my new favorite books. It's beautifully written and absolutely heart wrenching to read. The family the book focuses on are brand new immigrants from Lithuania. We see from the beginning just how hard being an immigrant during the late 1800's was, which is when my family came to the US making this book hit a bit closer to home than it would have if it had been a different ethnicity, different time period, or even different circumstances.

During this time period obviously there was no Welfare or assistance, you had to sink or swim, unlike today. We see this family claw and fight to make a life for themselves and it's soul crushing at some points. Any writing Upton did regarding the stockyards was fascinating and jaw dropping to where I did even more background research on the stockyards of Chicago from this time period to see just how much of it was true. As it turns out, it all was. An example of Uptons slaughterhouse truth being; grinding meat that was too diseased to be sold in stores on its own with a combination of strong spices and non-diseased meat to make sausages. That's a very rated G example compared to what else is in this book. It should come as no surprise that this book caused a revolution in the meat industry and caused new federal and industrial laws and safety standards. As disgusting as it was to read, I couldn't put it down.

The meat industry was only one area of the story, however. The main point was to push socialism by showcasing the failures of capitalism in the realm of wage slavery. -This is only done in the last 1/8th of the book and is written like Upton Sinclair wrote it separately and needed to find a spot for it last minute. It doesn't even feel like it's a part of the same book resulting in a let down of an ending. Oddly enough the push for socialism is done just like it is at any other time throughout history, as a Robin Hood-type money grab to help the outcasts of society by using the evil millionaires money - some things just never change.

While doing some background research on the book, it came to my attention that it was burned during the Nazi book burnings and is illegal in Yugoslavia, Germany, and South Korea for its socialist views which of course only made me want to read it more.

It's also not easy to get your hands on this book here in the US. I was lucky enough to find a good copy on thriftbooks. If you want a copy you'll have to find a 3rd party seller. Everyone who bought a copy from places like Createspace said the copies were all bad, so find a reliable seller. It's an amazing read despite the socialism push, which for myself and others didn't even register as important. I can't recommend this book highly enough.

10/10

Buy your copy here.

Note: This publisher had the most positive reviews.