The Jungle

Rating:
Summary: Informative and interesting but a little too long
Review: I had high hopes for this book, which let me down in the end. I love reading older books based on history for the understanding of an era and to learn more about the life of an immigrant in the early 20th century. For the most part, this book vividly showed me another view of America, however, the last 50 pages were so filled with Sinclair's political ideas that I just couldn't keep my interest up.

Rating:
Summary: You need a STRONG stomach to read this book...
Review: DId I say strong? I meant IRON-CLAD. Don't get me wrong, I thought the book was good, but some of the mental imagery was a little too gross. Also, the book deteriorates into a big billboard for the Socalist party at the end. Other wise, this is a good book that depicts just how much people struggled to make so little. And in some places, it still applies today.

Rating:
Summary: the worst is a change for the better
Review: When I first began reading this, I was intrigued by the horrific tales of immigrant life in the early 1900s. It became depressing...but at the end you will realize that this book wasn't meant to entertain, but to expose what needed to be exposed. Some say its too morbid or sad, but that's the point. It was so bad and depressing, that it generated the government's involvement in the conditions of the slaughter houses. That's exactly what America needed at the time. ...hail sinclair

Rating:
Summary: A passionate condemnation of unrestrained capitalism.
Review: Being a decendant of late 18th century - early 19th century immigrant blue collar Midwesterners, this book struck a special cord. While many would argue with Sinclair's political beliefs, this is a rare book that grippingly exposes the dark side of unrestrained capitalism on a personal level. In an age when unions are on the decline, this book shows why they became popular in the first place. I think this book should be required reading for all people who aspire to business ownership/management.

Rating:
Summary: The Jungle... an intresting book to say the least..
Review: Most people that I encounter say its the most depressing book they hev ever read... I personally find it fascinating. You could feel sorry for Jurgis and his family... but I only thought of the countless others that were in the same exact situation during that time period. The thing that struck me though was the treatment of food other people would eat, and how the companies swindled so many. If this doesn't make you a vegetarian... nothing will.

Rating:
Summary: THE MORE THINGS CHANGE...
Review: EXAUSTED WORKERS TIED TO COMPUTERS... FACTORY WORKERS BREATHING IN TOXIC STENCHES BUSINESS PEOPLE WRITING OFF FANCY LUNCHES WE ARE ALL ENSLAVED THE GIFT WE RECEIVE FOR WORKING HARD AND SUFFERING AND TRYING TO GIVE OUR FAMILIES A DECENT HOME IS....DEATH, DISPAIR, AND...

Rating:
Summary: Best propaganda novel since Uncle Tom's Cabin
Review: While Mr. Sinclair's message might seem a little obvious to us now, think of the impact it had at the turn of the century. It is a terrific book for high school students to read and discuss. The majority find it very interesting and thought provoking--Upton is still at work.

Rating:
Summary: Mighty scary, but an important reminder of what used to be.
Review: It's amazing. The more things change, the more they stay the same. Exactly 90 years after the publication of "The Jungle", I was working for a company then known as Courier Dispatch. Starting pay was $5.00/hr, with an "increase" to $5.25/hr after 6 months. A company newsletter bragged about Courier merging with two companies boasting combined assets over $3.8 billion. That's right--billion, with a "B". All the while, I was running all over town in a car with over 100k miles on it and not earning enough to buy a car of my own. If I didn't like it, someone else would be eagerly waiting to take my position. Even though the situation wasn't as wrong as that in "The Jungle", it still wasn't right.

Rating:
Summary: A truly wretched book
Review: I read this book for a comparison paper with Ayn Rand's Atlas Shrugged. I soon found that it's three hundred pages thoroughly dwarfed the thousand in Ayn Rand's novel, due to it's dragging and morbid plot. I decided to at least give it one hundred pages for the story to develope, but found that after that trial period, all I really wanted was for Jurgis to die, so that the drudgery would end. If Upton hated American capitalism so much, why didn't he move elsewhere? I will never read another book by this man. -- Caleb Kelley

Rating:
Summary: The Jungle is a depressing book about how people hurt others
Review: This book is an example of the terrible things that people with power do to people with nothing. The characters in the book come to the United States in hope of a better future, but once they get to the "Land of Opportunity," they discover that the only "opportunity" they have is to become an overworked, underpaid worker, a cog in the machine of the capitalists that own the society. Anything that can go wrong does go wrong, and by the end of the book, half of the characters are dead, and the rest have lost their souls to the "system." At the very end of the novel, the mood starts to pick up again as the main character discovers the socialists, people that have power and want to use it to help the lower class. But, to be perfectly honest, by the time I got to that point, I was so depressed that it didn't do much to lift my spirits. All in all, I found The Jungle a disturbing account of the terrors that afflicted the lower class of the early 20th century.