USA HISTORY

In 1906, Upton Sinclair wrote the novel The Jungle, which was based on the living and working conditions of immigrants. Sinclair focused on workers’ low wages as well as the unsanitary meatpacking conditions present in many of America’s factories. In 1906, partly due to The Jungle, Congress passed the Meat Inspection Act. How did Upton Sinclair’s novel, The Jungle, influence the role of the federal government?

(A) The federal government outlawed unsafe working conditions in factories.

(B) The federal government lost its power to regulate interstate affairs.

(C) ** The federal government began regulating the food industry.

Concept note-1: -Upton Sinclair wrote The Jungle to expose the appalling working conditions in the meat-packing industry. His description of diseased, rotten, and contaminated meat shocked the public and led to new federal food safety laws.

Concept note-2: -Upton Sinclair was a famous novelist and social crusader from California, who pioneered the kind of journalism known as “muckraking.” His best-known novel was “The Jungle” which was an expose of the appalling and unsanitary conditions in the meat-packing industry.

Concept note-3: -Commissioned by a socialist newspaper to investigate working conditions in Chicago’s meatpacking industry, journalist Upton Sinclair spent seven weeks among immigrant workers in packing plants.

Concept note-4: -In 1906, the meat packing industry was growing drastically and the need for workers increased even more. However, the novel by Upton Sinclair, The Jungle, published in 1906, revealed the horrifying and unsanitary working conditions that employees lived through.