Moreover, the poor and uneducated workers were frequently swindled into buying furniture, houses, insurance, and other things they couldn't afford, usually signing contracts they couldn't understand. ... Some of the worst abuses of labor conditions took place in the big cities like New York and Chicago, and it was in Chicago, the cattle and commodity market of the Midwestern United States, that Upton Sinclair found the setting for the book that was to bring him fame: He first won recognition by his novel The Jungle, (1906), a powerful realistic study of social conditions in the...

• Word Count: 4457
• Approx Pages: 18
• Grade Level: High School