Book · 2019 · Comics & Graphic Novels
The Jungle
[A Graphic Novel]
Why people recommend it
The Jungle by Upton Sinclair is a powerful early twentieth-century muckraking novel that exposes the horrific, unsafe working conditions and severe exploitation faced by laborers in the American meatpacking industry. The book is frequently referenced on podcasts to highlight historical and contemporary labor issues. On Breaking Points, Emily Jashinsky and Crystal Ball recommended reading the novel alongside the history of the Triangle Shirtwaist Fire to remind listeners of the brutal realities of early industrialization and to draw parallels to modern economic policies. On Stuff They Don't Want You To Know, Ben Bowlin and other hosts discussed Sinclair's enduring legacy, noting that his investigative journalism was entirely correct and played a foundational role in shaping modern consumer protections and food safety regulations. Other podcast episodes on platforms like The Daily Stoic have similarly explored Sinclair's broader body of work, comparing his fictional and non-fiction exposés of corporate and media manipulation.
Who recommended it
- Crystal Ball Discussed
- Emily Jashinsky Recommended
- Ben Bowlin Discussed
- Ryan Holiday Discussed
Crystal Ball — 2 mentions
“Think of like, you know, more denzian. Think of like, you know, Upton Sinclair and the way workers were treated in, you know, in the jungle. Think of the triangle shirt waist fire.”
“That was much more like, think of, you know, more denzian. Think of like, you know, Upton Sinclair and the way workers were treated in, you know, in the jungle.”
Emily Jashinsky — 2 mentions
“Go read The Jungle by Upton Sinclair or the history of the Triangle Sherk Waist Fire for a refresher on how workers were treated at that time.”
“Go read The Jungle by Upton Sinclair or the history of the Triangle Sherk Waist Fire for a refresher on how workers were treated at that time.”
Ben Bowlin — 1 mention
“this is uh this is overall something that uh Upton Sinclair would would applaud right the author of The Jungle right and that that uh piece of Journalism played a huge role in the consumer protections that exist in the United States today”
Ryan Holiday — 1 mention
“anyways upton sinclair who wrote the jungle”
Mentioned on the show without a named speaker — 12
“Nupton Sinclair was 100% right. There's a reason that we mention him so often.”
“I mean, this sounds like the kind of stuff that Upton Sinclair wrote about in 'The Jungle' like back, you know what I mean?”
“So after he wrote The Jungle, he wrote this like similar book; it’s non-fiction instead of fiction, I guess, but he basically writes an expose of early 20th Century media.”
“Oh man, it was like Upton Sinclair's The Jungle right before my little 13-year-old eyes.”
“They're certainly not really old, because at least in the United States, it wasn't until that book you mentioned, The Jungle, was published in 1905 that people like really sat up and took notice, and Congress acted almost immediately and passed the Pure Food and Drug Act the next year.”
“That's the impact that Upton Sinclair's The Jungle had.”
“But my reading teacher was also the social studies teacher, and I guess that explains why all of our reading lists included Animal Farm, Hiroshima, All Quiet on the Western Front, and you know it. The Jungle by Upton Sinclair is a powerful book.”
“Like you said, he was a hardcore socialist and a writer who wrote the very famous book The Jungle about... Well, most people who have never read The Jungle probably say, 'Yeah, it's about exposing the meatpacking in Chicago, right?'”
“you know one of the primary motivating factors for the creation of the FDA was a book a quite disturbing book about stockyards in Chicago it was called the jungle written by a guy named Upton Sinclair and it shed a lot of light on things people would rather not think about”
“yeah actually that makes me think of what was it up in sinclair the the was it the jungle”
“that's that's the jungle that's up to sinclair he's a socialist tried to be governor of california”
“Upton Sinclair what he wrote the jungle he saw everything and then he ran back to his hotel”
Also mentioned in the same episodes
- Rules for Radicals
- The Brass Check, a Study of American Journalism
- A Classical Student
- All Quiet on the Western Front
- American Pravda
- Amusing Ourselves to Death
Other mentions (1: passing, ad reads, own books)
“working a slaughterhouses like the jungle was written by Upton cair back in like the you know 1800s”