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In 1904 Upton Sinclair, then 26, spent seven weeks in the Chicago stockyards, the district known as Packingtown, watching how meat was made and how the people who made it lived. The novel that came out of it, The Jungle, ran in the socialist weekly Appeal to Reason from February to November 1905 and appeared as a book from Doubleday in 1906. He wanted readers to care about the Lithuanian immigrant workers; what they noticed was the meat. Within months Congress passed the Meat Inspection Act and the Pure Food and Drug Act. He went on to write nearly a hundred books, won the Pulitzer Prize in 1943 for Dragon's Teeth, and in 1934 ran for governor of California and won about 879,000 votes. The ten writers below share his method: go and look, write down what work does to people, and publish it where it will be read.
By Lisanne Swart · 10 authors · Muckraking · Social-protest fiction · Updated October 2026
Quick answer
If you like Upton Sinclair, start with Ida Tarbell, whose The History of the Standard Oil Company (1904) was the other great muckraking book of his decade. For the same anger in fiction, read Émile Zola's Germinal and John Steinbeck's The Grapes of Wrath. For the modern version, read Eric Schlosser and Barbara Ehrenreich, and further down there is one writer who questions the whole project.
10 authors like Upton Sinclair
Where to start if you loved Upton Sinclair
If you want the facts behind the anger, read Ida Tarbell.
The History of the Standard Oil Company: the other great muckraking case of the 1900s.
If you want the novel that came before, read Émile Zola.
Germinal: a mining strike researched underground.
If you want it in the Depression, read John Steinbeck.
The Grapes of Wrath: one family, one economic collapse, one long road west.
If you want it today, read Barbara Ehrenreich.
Nickel and Dimed: a reporter trying to live on low-wage jobs.
If you have only read The Jungle, try Sinclair's Oil! (1927).
His novel about the California oil boom, later loosely adapted as the film There Will Be Blood (2007).
Frequently asked questions about authors like Upton Sinclair
Who writes like Upton Sinclair?
Ida Tarbell and Jacob Riis were his fellow reformers; Émile Zola and John Steinbeck wrote social-protest novels in the same spirit. Eric Schlosser's Fast Food Nation and Barbara Ehrenreich's Nickel and Dimed are the modern equivalents.
What should I read after The Jungle?
Émile Zola's Germinal (1885) for the same kind of novel set in a French coalfield, and Eric Schlosser's Fast Food Nation (2001) for modern meatpacking. Sinclair's own Oil! (1927) is the best next book by him.
Is Upton Sinclair like John Steinbeck?
Both researched working conditions before writing novels about them, and both wrote about California. Sinclair's novels are more openly political; Steinbeck's The Grapes of Wrath stays closer to one family.
What did The Jungle change?
Public outrage over the book contributed to the Meat Inspection Act and the Pure Food and Drug Act, both passed in 1906. Sinclair had meant to draw attention to the workers rather than the meat.
Which Upton Sinclair book should I read first?
The Jungle (1906) is the obvious start. Oil! (1927) is the best novel to read next, and Dragon's Teeth (1942) won the Pulitzer Prize in 1943.
Was Upton Sinclair a muckraker?
Yes. He is one of the writers most associated with the muckraking movement of the early 1900s, alongside Ida Tarbell and Lincoln Steffens.
Sources
List last reviewed 30 October 2026.
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