The Socialist, The Senator and The President: Upton Sinclair, Teddy Roosevelt and the Passage of the Meat Inspection Act of 1906

Upton Sinclair’s groundbreaking novel The Jungle described the struggles of a working class family of Chicago immigrants and the horrifying conditions in meat packing factories. Sinclair wrote his novel to show the evils of capitalism. However, readers responded to the descriptions of the poor sanitation and rancid conditions inside meatpacking plants, and The Jungle created a firestorm of public disgust and outrage, setting in motion events which led to the passage of one of the signature achievements of the Progressive political movement in America − the Federal Meat Inspection Act of 1906. This short book tells the day-to-day behind the scenes story of these events.