One Man's Initiation (1917), Dos Passos's first novel, tells about his experiences on the Western Front during World War I.

Dos Passos's Manhattan Transfer (1925), set in New York City, shows his experimentation with some of the same fictional techniques he later used in U.S.A.

Dos Passos's Three Soldiers (1921) was considered the best war novel written up to that time.

Upton Sinclair's The Jungle (1906), a depiction of the horrors and abuses in the turn-of-thecentury American meat packing industry, was so influential that it led to the establishment of the Food and Drug Administration, as well as Pure Food Laws.

John O'Hara's Appointment in Samarra (1934) portrays the effects of the coming depression and the increased diversity of America on characters from various parts of society.

Babbitt by Sinclair Lewis (1922) tells the story of a vulgar real-estate man, the total conformist, in...