Readers' Review: "The Jungle" by Upton Sinclair
http://thedianerehmshow.org/shows/2011-09-28/readers-review-jungle-upton-sinclair
Men dress beef, remove hides, and split backbones in Swift's Packing House, Chicago, in the early 1900s.
Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division
For The September Readers' Review, we discuss Upton Sinclair's 1906 novel about an immigrant family's struggles to get ahead in America. It exposed shocking conditions in Chicago's meat packing plants at the start of the 20th century and spurred government regulation of the industry.
Guests
Gardiner Harris
science reporter for The New York Times and author of the mystery novel "Hazard."
Peggy Ann Brown
writer and independent researcher
Lisa Page
president of the PEN/Faulkner Foundation and creative writing teacher at George Washington University.
Related Items
Read an Excerpt
From Upton Sinclair's "The Jungle." Reprinted here by kind permission of Oxford University Press.
Comments
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Behold the U.S. prior to representative government and labor union power.
Behold the U.S. and world today, largely without labor union power and representative government.
Life sustaining resources and environment are absolutely necessary for man's survival.
Perhaps the next Adam and Eve will get it right. Then again perhaps the next J.C. will not sacrifice his life for humankind, and free will, will not be an option.
rita_marvin@sbcglobal.net
how do you, know, for sure, that you, were MEANT to type that...
just saying
remember when local library(come back later children and US will explain what was a library) and the book(come back...)
was placed on the 'restricted' reading/ viewing list due to ITs graphic descriptions
and the uproar when used in public schools(minors!) later
compared to today... LOL... is still taught HS ?
Remember ITs all protein... but 'meat' products should not dissolve at room temperatures either... but that another show
month to foreclosure and stress rears ITs head and no sleep till then... AND no response from lender LOL... but that also another show- APOLOGIES
McDonald's Big 'N Tasty is People,
So stick yo' arm out da window and enjoy!
Want a bacteria pie with that today?
(think of those poor tomato pickers, 2.5 tons a day for less than 10K a year.
that's where jobs are headed. i'd like to see Rick Perry pick., pick in the hot Texas sun until he croaks.)
Thank you for reviewing this great book. It helped President T. Roosevelt see the horrific conditions of these poor workers and should be required reading for all generations.
The uncensored version I tell all my friends to get is for the Kindle:
http://www.amazon.com/Jungle-Uncensored-Original-ebook/dp/B003I84M3M/ref...
Thank you Diane
This book is free on iBooks. Can't wait to read it.
I read The Jungle in graduate school in the 1960's, a timely preparation I think for the '70's because it made me question everything about what I knew of business, politics, and work. Recently, I recommended that this book become required reading, just to enlighten people who don't remember what life was like in the good old days. Sinclair also wrote a tell-all about the oil industry; Oil was became a riveting film a few years ago called There Will be Blood.
We read this book in my 7th grade Social Studies class, back in 1975. All these years later, it's still a powerful story.
Right-to-work vs. union. For those who say unions don't matter, business works in it's own best interest even if the worker has to suffer; so, you'd better find a way to represent your own, because when business has you in a position that you are GRATEFUL to have a job- any job, guess what? You lose!
What an exciting, well-written book. I was afraid of it being an antique with gory graphic slaughterhouse details I couldn't take, and nearly stopped reading when I got to the description. Should be Required Reading for all Tea Partiers - this is your world without government interference. Not only were working conditions impossible, but housing, food, every commercial product was shoddy, adulterated, if not dangerous.
I was sorry to come to the end of the book.
I never read a more vivid opening scene.
Bravo, Upton!
Thanks for the link to the uncensored Kindle version! I just read the regular Kindle version and found it incredible.
Well said, alexabercrombie46.
The issue in Florida that was just referred to, I believe, has to do with the Immokalee Workers. Here's a link: http://www.ciw-online.org/
It's such a shame that "Traitor" Joes won't get on board with the Coalition of Immokalee Workers. I miss going there.
Diane,
Thank you so much for taking the time to have this discussion today and how classical literature does sometimes describe our current conditions, and sometimes in ways in much better ways than we could even hope to do ourselves.
Please do not stop this discussion. But expand it. Please consider looking closer at Oscar Wilde's "An ideal husband." In that play, there are some incredible business dialogues and are amazingly analogous to the current trend of investment America.
Thank you so much, FF
As a young high school student required to read this in English class, I can honestly say this book changed my life. I became vegetarian and have never forgotten the scenes in my mind described by Sinclair.
18 years later, I still recommend this book to all my acquaintences. This book is timeless and still so relevant today.
In fact, last night I just saw the movie "The Cove" which is like a modern day Jungle happening in Japan right now.
I wish the slaughter of innocent animals for the selfish needs of the elite would stop.
Amazing!
No 2 AM spew of ideological nonsense by monte, posted before this show even aired.
No mindless brain-dead "hurrah's" from Cicero, Hainc, or Ecgbhert marching in lock-step behind their "fearless leader".
Just a collection of (mostly) fairly well expressed, intelligent, comments based on fact and reason. It's like a breath of fresh air!
Maybe those other "worthies" are "on vacation" as I have been.
Meanwhile, kudos to everyone else.
just wanted to let people know the original version I quoted from on the show is still available from the See Sharp Press Books website
I have always loved this book I went into it just knowing that it was about the meat packing industry. (I often horrify myself with a need to know more information about food processing.) Through reading it I discovered it was about so much more than just that. An excellent book and well worth a discussion. Thank you for featuring it.
Etaoin Shrdlu wrote:
"Amazing!
No 2 AM spew of ideological nonsense by monte, posted before this show even aired.
No mindless brain-dead "hurrah's" from Cicero, Hainc, or Ecgbhert marching in lock-step behind their "fearless leader"."
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While we carnivores are grateful for the Federal pure-food statute,
Uppie's ideological record speaks for itself.
"Mr. Sinclair often declared that he was a Socialist. In fact, he was a member of that party from 1902 to 1934, with an interruption for World War I, which he supported and later condemned. He left the party in 1934 to become a Democrat, but continued to regard himself as a Socialist in spirit."
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Etaoin Shrdlu wrote:
"Just a collection of (mostly) fairly well expressed, intelligent, comments based on fact and reason. It's like a breath of fresh air!"
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Spoken like the true halitosis of the forum.
It's nice to be missed E.S. Just taking a time out to see what goes on here without any sensible input from the right, the right as apposed to wrong as is mostly the case here.
MarcusTullius on September 28, 2011 @ 7:01 pm wrote: “Spoken like the true halitosis of the forum.”
PART ONE
Ah, the ad hominem attack, favorite tool of demagogues who have nothing of real substance to offer, and are incapable of providing a reasoned response.
In case you missed the point Marcus (not related to Cicero, are you?), I referred to Monte’s usual practice of posting Comments before a story even airs. That, sir, is the hallmark of an ideologue: no need for facts (or to apply reason to those facts). They know everything in advance because their absolute philosophy dictates what they should say no matter what the topic may be. No need to waste time listening to what the guests are talking about, just spew.
And that’s also why much, if not most, of what ideologues produce is nonsense.
As for Monte’s “followers” - again, they can be counted on to agree almost 100% with whatever he writes because they only know ideology, not fact or reason.
(And please note: I criticize what they write, not the people themselves, and provide reasons for my critique - unlike you, sir.)
TO BE CONTINUED
PART TWO
And you offer us another example, by playing the “Socialist” card. (Usually a catch-all epithet right-wingers use for anything they don’t like, regardless of whether the label fits or not. In this case it does fit, though probably not as you interpret it.) This allows you to diminish Sinclair’s work, particularly in reference to the The Jungle, without bothering to explain why. That’s not good enough.
An old joke illustrates the problem most right-wingers have, what I like to call mindless Anti-Communism (as distinguished from the intelligent kind): If Stalin were against the Bubonic Plague, would you be for it? Most mindless Anti-Communists would answer: Yes - they are against anything “commies” favor, and never mind the facts.
Can you deny the horrifying details set forth in The Jungle are true? Can you prove we’d be better off if the laws passed to combat those evils had never been created? (Laws passed by the dreaded “Progressives”, another epithet right-wingers mindlessly employ?) That’s the proper and rational way to respond to Mr. Sinclair, not simply crying “Socialist!”.
If there’s any air pollution, or foul odors, on this page, I’d say you (and Monte, at long last) are providing them.
monte on September 28, 2011 @ 7:30 pm wrote: “It's nice to be missed E.S. Just taking a time out to see what goes on here without any sensible input from the right, the right as apposed to wrong as is mostly the case here.”
Welcome back.
(Though truth to tell, I just “popped in” myself. I’m a little too busy right now to participate in every discussion.)
As for “sensible input”, considering the source of that Comment I think everyone should take it with a boulder of salt. By the way, you do realize that your “right” is my “left” (and therefore, by your argument: wrong)!
;-)
Take care.
RECOMMENDATIONS:
Other books in this vein: " The Ethical Assassin" by David Liss about modern factory farming and "The Given Day" by Dennis Lehane which describes the 1919 Police strike in Boston, an excellent history of how people fought for unions.