#602 Progressive Reform: The Jungle

Left: ​Cutting up hogs in Swift & Co.'s Packing House, c. 1905, Library of Congress. Right: Original edition of Upton Sinclair, The Jungle. New York: The Jungle Publishing Co., 1906.

Review:

On the board, use the following chart to brainstorm the causes that progressives supported, disagreed upon, and opposed.

The Jungle, today: a clip from Food, Inc. (2008)

(For reference, you can watch the entire documentary on Netflix here or find it at the library: 338.4766 F73)

Discussion on Upton Sinclair, The Jungle (1905)

In the following discussion, my primary role will be to chart your discussion. I will ask the first question and intervene only rarely after that. The discussion will be graded 6 points for the quality of your individual contributions and another 6 points for the quality of the class's discussion as a whole. For the individual components, I will be recording instances where students . . .

• Ask a provocative question. (+)
• Refer specifically to the text. (+)
• Make a notable insight. (+)
• Advance the conversation, (+)
• Make a meaningful connection. (+)
• Veer off-topic. (-)
• Make inferences based only on conjecture. (-)
• Dominate or disrespect. (-)

Questions to guide your discussion:

• Identify similarities you observe between Food, Inc. (2008) and The Jungle (1905). Differences?
• Explain what Sinclair meant when he said “I aimed at the public’s heart, and by accident I hit it in the stomach.”
• Most of the text we read is simply descriptive. What do you think are his key arguments? Identify particular points in the text to support your conclusions.
• President Theodore Roosevelt initially dismissed Sinclair as a “crackpot.” However, after reading book, he sent federal investigators to look into the Chicago meatpacking industry. The 1906 Neill-Reynolds Report confirmed allegations in Sinclair’s book, and the same year the Pure Food and Drug Act led to what is known today as the Food and Drug Administration (FDA). How would you evaluate Roosevelt’s response? Which concerns raised by Sinclair did it address?
• About four years ago, Chinese news sources reported the widespread use of “gutter oil” (i.e. used cooking oil harvested from sewers, chemically treated, and then resold to restaurants). How is this story like—and unlike—that Sinclair details in The Jungle?

​Homework: Assignment #603