The Jungle and the Progressive
Era
Books
If you can’t get one of the editions of the
novel discussed by Professor Cherny in his essay, do
try to find one that has some supplementary annotation
and explanation – for instance, the “Enriched
Classics” edition available in paperback from
Pocket books (2004).
The novel’s author, Upton Sinclair, led a life
as interesting as any of his fictional heroes. These
are some of the more recent biographies you’ll
want to read:
Arthur, Anthony. Radical innocent: Upton Sinclair.
New York: Random House, c2006.
Coodley, Lauren. Land of Orange Groves and Jails:
Upton Sinclair's California. Berkeley: Heyday Books,
2004. Of special interest to Californians – Coodley
focuses on Sinclair’s writings about his adopted
state on the Pacific Coast.
Mattson, Kevin. Upton Sinclair and the Other American
Century. Hoboken, NJ : John Wiley & Sons, c2006.
Mitchell, Greg. The Campaign of the Century: Upton
Sinclair's Race for Governor of California and the Birth
of Media Politics. New York : Random House, c1992.
And don’t ignore these two books by Sinclair
about himself:
Sinclair, Upton. The Autobiography of Upton Sinclair.
London: W.H. Allen, 1963.
_____. I, Candidate for Governor, and How I Got
Licked. Berkeley: University of California Press,
c1994.
Sinclair was only one of many “muckraking”
American journalists. These books will tell you more
about these women and men and about McClure’s,
the magazine that carried so many of their stories:
Weinberg, Arthur and Lila (Eds). The Muckrakers.
Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 2001. Excellent
anthology of “muckraking” essays from Sinclair’s
era.
Miraldi, Robert (Ed). The Muckrakers: Evangelical
Crusaders. Westport, CT: Praeger, 2000. A collection
of scholarly articles.
Wilson, Harold S. McClure's Magazine and the Muckrakers.
Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1970.
Serrin, Judith and William (Eds). Muckraking! :
The Journalism that Changed America. New York:
New Press, 2002. An anthology of investigative journalism
over the last 250 years.
Bausman, Ann. Muckrakers: How Ida Tarbell, Upton
Sinclair, and Lincoln Steffens Helped Expose Scandal,
Inspire Reform, and Invent Investigative Journalism.
Washington: National Geographic, 2007. Good study for
grades 9-12.
For more background on the meatpacking industry, see:
Stromquist, Shelton, and Marvin Bergman, (Eds). Unionizing
the Jungles: Labor and Community in the Twentieth-Century
Meatpacking Industry. Iowa City : University of
Iowa Press, c1997.
For additional information on the fight for pure food
legislation, try some of these books:
Coppin, Clayton A. The Politics of Purity: Harvey
Washington Wiley and the Origins of Federal Food Policy.
Ann Arbor : University of Michigan Press, c1999.
Goodwin, Lorine Swainston. The Pure Food, Drink,
and Drug Crusaders, 1879-1914. Jefferson, NC: McFarland,
1999.
Young, James Harvey. Pure food: Securing the Federal
Food and Drugs Act of 1906. Princeton, NJ: Princeton
University Press, 1989.
Theodore Roosevelt’s role in the enactment of
the Meat Inspection and Pure Food laws remains the subject
of controversy. In addition to Lewis Gould’s book
recommended by Dr. Cherny, you may want to read:
Hawley, Joshua David. Theodore Roosevelt: Preacher
of Righteousness. New Haven : Yale University Press,
c2008.
Should you need to know more about the Socialist Party
in the United States, these studies will be helpful:
Bell, Daniel. Marxian Socialism in the United States.
Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, c1996.
Lipset, Seymour Martin. It Didn't Happen Here:
Why Socialism Failed in the United States. New
York: W.W. Norton & Co., 2000.
Internet Resources
The Internet offers a narrower choice of materials
on The Jungle than on Huck Finn or
Uncle Tom’s Cabin, but I think you’ll
find these useful:
Maryland State Archives “Teaching American History
in Maryland: Documents for the Classroom” has
lesson plans (5-12) for Sinclair and The Jungle
that I’m sorely tempted to call “nifty”
– this is a real winner, with documents, links
to other Internet resources, images – go for it:
http://teachingamericanhistorymd.net/
000001/000000/000167/html/t167.html
PBS “Classrooms” lesson plan on the novel
is also worth looking at:
http://www.pbs.org/wnet/americannovel/classroom6.html
