1.  Focus on: Corruption and social injustice  Raise the consciousness of America  Muckrakers  Upton Sinclair and The Jungle 1906 PROGRESSIVE JOURNALISM

2.  Born in Baltimore  Grew up poor though money on his mother’s side (stayed with grandparents due to mother-son relationship)  Gave him insight into how both the rich and the poor lived BACKGROUND

3.  Love for reading (5 yrs old)  read every book that his mother owned for a deeper understanding of the world.  Entered City College of New York (14 yrs old)  He wrote jokes, dime novels and magazine articles in boy's weekly and pulp magazines to pay for his tuition.  He graduated in 1897  Columbia University  Major - Law, but he was more interested in writing, and he learned several languages including Spanish, German and French. BACKGROUND CON’T

4.  In 1904, Sinclair spent seven weeks in disguise, working undercover in Chicago's meatpacking plants to research his political fiction exposé  When it was published two years later, it became a bestseller INVESTIGATIVE WORK…

5. EXCERPT FROM THE JUNGLE Extra: Video Audio Online Online Intro The Jungle: Jurgis Rudkus - A Lithuanian immigrant who comes to America with his wife, Ona The couple and several relatives have come to Chicago in search of a better life and settle in Packingtown, the center of Lithuanian immigration and of Chicago’s meatpacking industry Durham’s Canned Goods – National Household name Jonas – Step-uncle of Jurgis Antanas (Rudku) - Jurgis’s father

6.  Novel prompted President Theodore Roosevelt to order an investigation of Sinclair's allegations about unsanitary practices  used the results of that investigation to pressure Congress into approving new federal legislation to inspect meatpacking.  Pure Food and Drug Act (1906)  Halted the sale of contaminated foods and medicines and called for truth in labeling  Meat Inspection Act (1906)  The Act mandated cleaner conditions for meatpacking plants Aftermath - Consumer Protection " A nauseating job, but it must be done“ ~ Utica Saturday Globe