Socialism and The Jungle by Upton Sinclair In 1906, The Jungle by Upton Sinclair was published in book form; it had previously been published as a newspaper series in 1905. Few literary works have changed history in the United States as much as The Jungle did when it was published. It has been said that the book led to the direct passage of the “Pure Food and Drug Act” of 1906 (Dickstein) and led to a decades-long decline in meat consumption in the United States. 1900 in Chicago; a time when true industrialization had come to the United States and immigrant populations had soared (numbersusa.com). The story begins with the traditional Lithuanian wedding of Jurgis and his sixteen-year-old bride, Ona. The wedding is one they can hardly afford and is a backdrop to the changes they are just beginning to encounter in their new country. Immigrants with peasant origins had begun arriving in droves in the United States in the late 1890s from places such as Ireland, Poland, Italy, and Lithuania (numbersusa.com). These people were not equipped to deal with the harsh realities of urban life in America at that time. In his book Sinclair shows how capitalism creates pressures that undermine the traditional family life, cultural bonds and moral values ​​that these immigrants brought with them. With "literally not even a month's salary between them and starvation", workers are pressured to abandon their families, women sometimes having to choose between starvation and prostitution. Children are forced to work rather than attend school, just to avoid going hungry again one day.