Book Review Of Upton Sinclair On The Chicago Stockyards

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Throughout “The Big Picture Of The Great Depression” the author explains the Great Depression as it relates to the world instead of the more familiarized effects on the United States. The author speaks on the fact that the Great Depression caused problems for all the countries who were in the First World War and how they continued to delay the process of finding a solution because they blamed each other. During the first few pages the author made an emphasis on the fact that this wasn’t an American issue, but an international one. The author mentioned Prime Minister MacDonald and his theory on how capitalism was to be blamed for the recession, this coupled with his examples of President Hoover blaming foreign nations, shows how instead of …show more content…

Sinclair sheds light on how unsanitary the meat processing industry was, using words to paint a mental picture in the minds of the reader leaving them with a bad taste in their mouths. This story eventually led to the creation of the Pure Food and Drug Act after people went crazy reading what was described in the book. Although no specific facts were provided other than the contents in the book itself, it held true accounts of what the industry was like. Sinclair would speak of the rat poison being left close to the meat, or the use of the rotting meat to be sold. With this story people began to see the gruesome conditions by which their food was being handled. This caused a panic where people stopped wanting meat, some much so that the government had to step in to settle everyone down. This story provided some context into the unknown world of meat processing allowing everyone to see all of the corners that were cut in the meat …show more content…

Many believe Warren Harding to be one of the worst presidents in American history, but Anthony takes a different view. As he analyzed deeper into the life of Warren Harding he discovered many untold events that show Harding to be a lot less bad then many originally thought. Anthony describes Harding to be a good guy at heart but just easily taken advantage of. Anthony brings up things like Harding’s creation of the Bureau of Budget and the fact that he was a big reason why big steel producers cut working hours and increased wages. Anthony explains himself by saying that he didn’t believe that Harding was the best president ever, but he also wasn’t the worst one either. Anthony uses events in which Harding defended Jewish, black and the working class people to show a side of Harding that wasn’t often shown to others. Even towards the end, Anthony brings up the bad things that Harding did, like an affair he had or how he was taken advantage of by the Ohio Gang, as Anthony put it. But all in all, Anthony tries to show people that Harding wasn’t all that bad, he was just portrayed that way due to the problems that he had to try and face during his

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