The Jungle by Upton Sinclair

A portrait of Chicago, its immigrant community, and its money-making meatpacking industry, The Jungle was written to disturb and upset an entire nation. Considered one of the most vivid and gruesome depictions of the meatpacking industry at the turn of the 20th century, Upton Sinclair’s novel still shocks readers over a century after its initial publication. Filled with descriptions of the poverty in which immigrants lived, the horrifying work conditions in meatpacking businesses, and the suffering caused by economic misfortune, The Jungle is one of the most eye-opening classic books you can find.