Upton Sinclair`s dramatic & deeply moving story exposed the brutal conditions in the Chicago stockyards at the turn of the nineteenth century & brought into sharp moral focus the appalling odds against which immigrants & other working people struggled for their share of the American dream. Denounced by the conservative press as an un-American libel on the meatpacking industry, this book was championed by more progressive thinkers, including then president Theodore Roosevelt, & was a major catalyst to the passing of the Pure Food & Meat Inspection act, which has tremendous impact to this day.