Sinclair Publishes the Jungle

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Sinclair Publishes the Jungle

United States 1906

Synopsis

Upton Sinclair published The Jungle in 1906 as a socialist argument against wage slavery. Instead of generating interest in socialism, his exposure of the unsafe and unclean aspects of the Chicago meatpacking industry fueled reform and helped ensure the passage of the Pure Food and Drug Act of 1906 and the Meat Inspection Act. The novel remains an important one for historical as well as literary reasons and is one of a handful of books in the Muckrakers' canon.

Timeline

• 1886: Bombing at Haymarket Square, Chicago, kills seven policemen and injures numerous others. Eight anarchists are accused and tried; three are imprisoned, one commits suicide, and four are hanged.
• 1891: Construction of Trans-Siberian Railway begins. Meanwhile, crop failures across Russia lead to widespread starvation.
• 1896: Nobel Prize established.
• 1902: Second Anglo-Boer War ends in victory for Great Britain. It is a costly victory, however, resulting in the loss of more British lives (5,774) than any conflict between 1815 and 1914. The war also sees the introduction of concentration camps, used by the British to incarcerate Boer civilians.
• 1904: The ten-hour workday is established in France.
• 1906: After disputes resulting from the presidential election in Cuba, various Cuban parties invite the United States, under the 1901 Platt Amendment (which limits the terms of Cuban independence), to restore order.

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