Upton Sinclair's The Jungle

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Upton Sinclair's involvement with socialism, this led to a writing assignment about the plight of workers in the meatpacking industry, eventually resulting in the best-selling novel The Jungle. Despite Sinclair's intention to reveal the plight of laborers at the meatpacking plants, his image of it was so clear of the cruelty to animals and unsanitary conditions there caused great public outcry and ultimately changed the way people shopped for food. Fame and fortune would not swerve Sinclair from his political convictions; in fact, they only served to deepen them and enable him to commence on personal projects such as Helicon Hall, a utopian co-op that he constructed in New Jersey in 1906 with royalties received from The Jungle. The building burned down less than a year later, and Sinclair was forced to abandon his plans, suspecting that he had been targeted because of his socialist politics.
Lincoln Steffens was an American journalist, lecturer, and a political philosopher. During the time of 1901, he discovered abundant evidence of the corruption of politicians by businessmen seeking special privileges. In 1920, he said to a friend “I
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She argued that society should both respect the values and traditions of immigrants and help the newcomers adjust to American institutions. A new social ethic was needed, she said, to stem social conflict and address the problems of urban life and industrial capitalism. Although tolerant of other ideas and social philosophies, Addams believed in Christian morality and the virtue of learning by doing. She unsuccessfully tried to persuade President Woodrow Wilson to call a conference to mediate a negotiated end to hostilities. During the war she spoke throughout the country in favor of increased food production to aid the starving in