But only on one topic. Yes the FDA was created in large part from outrage over food condtions described in the book. But that really is only one chapter of the text, the majority of it deals with the exploration of workers in ALL sorts of industries (not just food), how preadatory home loans lead to finical ruins, how voting systems are rigged and how our policing system only produces more experienced criminals, not reform.

The last 2-3 chapters are explicitly socialist talking points that are still being said, for good reason, today. If the book was as influential as Sinclair wanted it to be, then we would've seen FAR FAR FAR more than the FDA.

I mean, heck, reread the passage I copied in. It's not really about food.

[–] Cryophilia@lemmy.world 9 points 7 months ago

The last 2-3 chapters are explicitly socialist talking points

My high school English class (in the Deep South) explicitly left those chapters out of our study of The Jungle lol.

[+] KevonLooney@lemm.ee -9 points 7 months ago (1 children)

So you're intentionally exaggerating when you say "nothing has changed". Yeah nothing has changed, except an entire Executive Branch department that didn't exist before. It was more influential than many other books written at the time.

Of course the author wanted the book to be even more influential, that's why authors write. No writer says "this book kinda sucks, I hope people read half of it and put it down".

[–] inb4_FoundTheVegan@lemmy.world 12 points 7 months ago* (last edited 7 months ago) (1 children)

intentionally exaggerating

🙄🙄🙄

You can "uh actually" my phrasing if you really want to, but playing tone police is to miss my actual point how these are long standing and well known problem that Sinclair spoke about extensively.

If you don't have anything meaningful to contribute to the conversation, it's okay to just keep scrolling.