Helpful Score: 7
I read this book after reading Fast Food Nation by Eric Schlosser. I had always thought this book was mainly about the meatpacking plants and how disgusting they were AND, while this was a part of the book and the plants are definitely disgusting, this book is much more than that. It follows an immigrant family from Lithuania as they try to make their way in America. Sinclaire really reels you in with his narrative and you can't help but feel for this family that quickly finds out that the American dream is not quite what they imagined.
Helpful Score: 3
If I had been alive and able to read during (many could not then as now I suppose)this time I think I would have stopped eating meat. Thank goodness for the FDA now to regulate how our meat is processed! It breaks my heart reading how people lived during this time and how immigrants were treated, I just can't imagine the struggles nd sacrafices they had to make. Overall its a great book and I am glad I read it.
Helpful Score: 2
The stockyards are long gone but the unsavory dark side of Chicago lives on. Chicago machine politicians recently elected to high offices in Washington confirm that beneath the glitz Chicago's the same town it was when Sinclair analyzed it.
Helpful Score: 2
Starts slow, but after awhile the grisly descriptions of the food industry in old America becomes powerful and gripping.
Helpful Score: 1
Great classic about meat packing industry at the early 1900s.
Helpful Score: 1
Oh the horror. After reading this you will defend USDA inspections with your last breath.
Helpful Score: 1
Fast food nation....before there was fast food.
A look into the culture of early America, and potential communism. You will really feel for the families involved.
(my high school history teacher didn't believe I read the entire book. He didn't know about my biblophile tendancies!)
A look into the culture of early America, and potential communism. You will really feel for the families involved.
(my high school history teacher didn't believe I read the entire book. He didn't know about my biblophile tendancies!)
Helpful Score: 1
Good book, a lot of detail. This was a required book read for a college history class.
Helpful Score: 1
Very good book about a family in poverty dealing with the dangerous working conditions of the slaughterhouse.
Helpful Score: 1
Excellent study of class, immigration, and captialism in early twentieth century America.
This is the way it was during the early years of imigration by Europeans and the hell they had to put up with in order to make a living. You think there is a problem with todays meat processing? You haven't even got a clue!!!!!
I thought the book gave a very painful look into the bleak life of immigrants in Chicago in the early 1900s
This book is an interesting look at the way immigrants were treated in Chicago's meat-packing industry in the early 1900s.
I didn't like the way the book just sort of ended.
I didn't like the way the book just sort of ended.
The meat packing industry in Chicago in the early 1900s. Very riveting.
The characters in this book were very believable. That said, it was a little depressing, and got way too political for me.
I loved the book up until the very end when it was no longer about the life of Jurgis Rudkus and all about Socialism. I felt towards the end I was reading an incredibly boring essay on the advantages of Socialism. The other 300 pages were great though. I enjoyed this book for putting a perspective on the life of immigrants during the early 1900s, for confirming that corruption in the United States was no different 100+ years ago. The Jungle made me appreciate the fact that even though my job isn't some place I'd like to be all the time, it's not even a scintilla of what people had to go through 100+ years ago. Read it.
I don't recommend reading this if you have a weak stomach. Other than that, it's an interesting, if fairly depressing read. I think it's good to have at least dabbled in the classics.
I read parts of this in high school, and picked it up again years later. It was surprising to me how much of it was still relevent. There were things I learned about our modern world that dates back to when this book was written. While some of the conditions may have improved, the desires and greed have remained in our country today.
put to the American public the fundamental questions raised by capitalism in such a way that they could not escape them. When it was first published in 1906, The Jungle exposed the inhumane conditions of Chicagos stockyards and the laborers struggle against industry and wage slavery. It was an immediate bestseller and led to new regulations that forever changed workers rights and the meatpacking industry.
This book is a tough read. it's easy to understand why it has become a classic. Definitely not a casual book to take to the beach, but more a cold fisted commentary on urban life at the beginning of the 20th century. The book hits hard at the plight of the emmigrants and could apply to our current culture.
Great book. Powerful, heart breaking and depressing at times. Upton Sinclair did a preeminent job exposing the reality of meat factories during the early 20th century.
this is not the cover of the book, my book is an older copy
1960 edition. A wonderful, yet very disturbing tale.
This book, about the life of a poor immigrant who finds a job in a meat processing plant, was fantastic - heart-breaking, hopeful, and disgusting. The only problem I had with it was the ending...I won't spoil it for you, though. Everyone should read this book.
Follows the life of one immigrent working man in 1906 Chicago. The incredible things this man endures are heart wrenching but you can't put the book down for the need to know what happens to him. The inside look at his life in the meat packing plants also spurred the pure food acts that still affect us today.
I loved this book. It makes you think about how it used to be and what all happens and is in our food.
What a trap the immigrants fell into as they moved to the promising city of Chicago. It explains why the city burned even across the river, and illustrates the gap between the classes. We have it so easy now! And this is why the USDA came about...
This book is incredibly gripping until you get to the politics at the end.
This is one book that everyone should read. It details the life in the meat-packing district of Chicago in the early 20th century and the horrific conditions under which the men had to work. The women's lot was no better, and this was the impetus for the labor movement that brought about so much change. It's been said that America's meat consumption dropped by 25% after this book was published because of the graphic details of the conditions in the plants.
This is probably my favorite book of all time. I found myself trapped in this tale and unable to put this book down. It is a classic in every way. You want to learn about America at the dawn of the industrial revolution, the treatment of immigrants or coporate greed? Do you want to read a book with happiness, heartbreak and great adventure? It's all right here!
It seems that Upton Sinclair sat down to attempt writing the most depressing book of all time........he may have succeeded.
This is a very powerful book. I was lucky enough to read this when I was very young and it was one of the motivating factors in my decision to stop eating meat. Everyone should read this book!
absolutely worth reading! a really great story set among Chicago early in the century,
in the slaughterhouses. wonderful for historical fiction fans!
in the slaughterhouses. wonderful for historical fiction fans!
A classic!
This is a great novel even though it depicts the ugly side of capitalism.
This book is a classic historical fiction book. The book depicts the life of an immigrant family in the meat packing industry in the 1800's. The "muck rakers" revelations led to the passage of various food health laws in the U.S.
In this powerful book we enter the world of Jurgis Rudkus, a young Lithuanian immigrant who arrives in America fired with dreams of opportunity, wealth, and freedom. And we discover, with him, the astonishing truth about "Packingtown," the busy, flourishing, filthy Chicago stockyards, where New World visions perish in a jungle of human suffering. Upton Sinclair, master of the muckraking novel, here explores the workingman's lot at the turn of the century: the backbreaking labor, the injustices of "wage slavery," the bewildering chaos of urban life.
This book was revolutionary in that it led to the passage of the Pure Food and Drug Act. A scorching expose of the cattle slaughter houses.
This was a real eye opener to what immigrants were experiencing in everyday life in the slums of Chicago. Their family's encounters with what they thought would be a great new start was depressing and disappointing. This book made me appreciative of the labor laws and regulations we have today. Very good read overall.
Shocking novel exposing the horrors of the meat packing industry in early 19th century America. This book strongly leans toward what the author believes to be the positive aspect of socialism.
Wonderfully graphic history of early Chicago and the living conditions of the immigrants.
By putting faces via the characters of Jurgis and family to the plight of the workers suffering at the hands of greed and the imbalance of wealth, Sinclair sets the stage for the most eloquent argument in favor of socialism I have ever read.
It is also an early work arguing in favor of vegetarianism, although this is a secondary cause in the book and thus easily forgotten if one is not on the look-out for it.
This book profoundly demonstrates how fiction can work for a cause and humanize, familiarize, and bring to home the faces and reality behind the issues of the day. I highly recommend this powerful work to all.
Check out my full review.
It is also an early work arguing in favor of vegetarianism, although this is a secondary cause in the book and thus easily forgotten if one is not on the look-out for it.
This book profoundly demonstrates how fiction can work for a cause and humanize, familiarize, and bring to home the faces and reality behind the issues of the day. I highly recommend this powerful work to all.
Check out my full review.
I really couldn't get into this book. Too much talking and not a lot of action. I am sure it's a good read for those who like detail.
Man, socialism in the twentieth century is going to rock! That's the ultimate message of Sinclair's preachy tome, which is remembered for its nauseating depictions of the meat trade in Chicago and its influence in getting food laws enacted and trusts busted.
He had a chance to make a great vision of bleakness, and would have if he'd ended about four chapters earlier. It would have been "The Grapes of Wrath," but less subtle. In fact, you know what would make for the shortest essay ever? The title, "The Subtle Aspects of Upton Sinclair's The Jungle." This thing is not subtle. Out hero, Jurgis, goes through an increasingly unlikely set of events so that we can see every facet of the meat industry in Chicago at the turn of the century (hint: it's not pretty). You just see the inevitability of the downward journey from the very beginning, and there's just no way out of it.
Then, for the last four chapters, we get several sermons disguised as conversational dialogue among very smart and good socialists.
Still, the thing is worth a read, and I dearly thank Sinclair for writing this every time I open a can of meat.
He had a chance to make a great vision of bleakness, and would have if he'd ended about four chapters earlier. It would have been "The Grapes of Wrath," but less subtle. In fact, you know what would make for the shortest essay ever? The title, "The Subtle Aspects of Upton Sinclair's The Jungle." This thing is not subtle. Out hero, Jurgis, goes through an increasingly unlikely set of events so that we can see every facet of the meat industry in Chicago at the turn of the century (hint: it's not pretty). You just see the inevitability of the downward journey from the very beginning, and there's just no way out of it.
Then, for the last four chapters, we get several sermons disguised as conversational dialogue among very smart and good socialists.
Still, the thing is worth a read, and I dearly thank Sinclair for writing this every time I open a can of meat.
I picked this up because I had heard of it but never read it. I admit I skimmed a lot as I am not interested in socialism. But the story of the suffering family was beautifully done; more than enough to keep me reading to the end.
This was a great insight into "how it really was" in a time that we know nothing about. And even if you do know about it, it's still a great book to read!
My grandson had to read it in High School - so did I when I went to school. I read it this time because I wanted to.
I could NOT get into this book so I'm willing to pass it on to someone who thinks they could!
This book has a different cover from the one posted
