Upton Sinclair was a socialist political activist, and an author who was known for his muckraking journalism. One of his most famous books is The Jungle, which is about the conditions of meatpacking industries. He later won a Pulitzer Prize for his book on how Hitler rose to power, and Edmund Wilson was quoted saying he was "practically alone among the writes of the time."This book helped in the passage of the pure food and drug acts. In 1934 he ran for the Californian governor stating his ideas for an EPIC plan called End Poverty in California (EPIC.) This plan called for unemployed people to work in state sponsored collective factories and farms to produce good for themselves. He won the Democratic primary for this idea but lost the election to the Republican Frank Merriam. When he was nominated to head the Democratic party ticket as a avowed socialist he was opposed by every establishment force, and he was attacked by propaganda and the media. There were political strifes within the Democratic party, and the groups opposed to parts of the EPIC plan. Democrats were determined to kill his candidacy, as he was accused of being a "Red," and a "crackpot." However he was very close to being elected as governor. President Roosevelt in 1934, proposed a national social insurance system in front of congress. Sinclair decided he was willing to defer from his plan to support the presidents national solution, yet publicly opposed the Townsend plan which was based upon regressive sales tax. However since people who supported the Townsend plan usually supported the EPIC plan, Sinclair was attacking himself. He lost by 9%, due to his lack intellectual honesty, and political actions. He was close to winning and the EPIC plan was very possible to be put in place.
https://www.ssa.gov/history/sinclair.html
https://www.ssa.gov/history/epic.html
http://www.shmoop.com/great-depression/upton-sinclair.html
http://www.biography.com/people/upton-sinclair-9484897#synopsis
Sinclair's an interesting figure in American politics at this time, especially considering that he worked as an author rather than a politician for the first half of his life. Chapter 8 in Freedom From Fear also tells an interesting story about him: when Sinclair entered the race for governor of California, he wrote a pamphlet titled "I, Governor of California and How I Ended Poverty" in support of his EPIC program; when he lost the race he salvaged what he could by writing another pamphlet titled "I, Candidate for Governor and How I Got Licked."
ReplyDeleteDo you think if he had declared his support for the Townsend plan that his candidacy was have been successful along with his EPIC plan?
ReplyDeleteIt's interesting how Sinclair went from a renown author who everyone supported to a politic figure that everyone hated because he was a socialist. I think his rejection puts into the perspective how scared people were of these new political movements like communism. This relates to the "red scare" when America went through this time period of intense fear for communism due to the recent situations in Russia and China.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.nytimes.com/ref/timestopics/topics_uptonsinclair.html
I wonder how much influence the book "the jungle" had on the passing of the food and drug administration. It is interesting how he is considered "among the writers of time", and I wonder if this is due to the importance of food to Americans and how we view our health and safety rules, especially regarding regulations on food.
ReplyDeleteIt would seem that "the jungle", although may not have been the complete cause of the creation of the FDA, definitely left a resounding enough impact on the American people to make them demand change. This impact, coupled with the fact that the FDA was created shortly afterwards and has remained in existence since then, would make it seem that that is indeed why the book and Upton Sinclair is considered one of the great writers of our time.
DeleteHe was EPIC. Roosevelt was a hard opponent, Upton Sinclair's loss proves that he was good. Although he might have not won, he still had a huge influence and his idea is not lost.
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