Upton Sinclair's muckraking novel of the Chicago meatpacking industry — intended as an argument for socialism and immigrant workers' rights, but remembered for its effect on food safety legislation.
'I aimed at the public's heart and by accident hit it in the stomach' — Sinclair's famous self-assessment. Intended as a socialist novel about immigrant exploitation: Jurgis Rudkis's exploitation by the meatpacking industry and the capitalist system. Actually triggered the Pure Food and Drug Act (1906) and the Federal Meat Inspection Act: Roosevelt read it and ordered inspections. A classic case of the unintended political effects of literature.
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