"Cliff Notes - Jungle, The" - читать интересную книгу автора (Cliff Notes)

contrast between the social classes; there are characters from
both worlds, the rich and the poor, and the plots are contrived
to carry you from one to the other. The explanation is that as
far back as I can remember, my life was a series of Cinderella
transformations; one night I would be sleeping on a
vermin-ridden sofa in a lodging-house, and the next night under
silken coverlets in a fashionable home.

Sinclair's childhood experiences made him a lifelong foe of
alcohol, which plays a villain's role in several of his novels,
including The Jungle. As a teenager he "traced the saloon to
Tammany [the political 'machine' that ran Democratic party
politics in New York] and blamed my troubles on the high
chieftains of this organization.... I had not yet found out
'big business.'"

CAPITALISM. Big Business was the name given to the largely
unregulated corporations that began to dominate the U.S.
economy after the Civil War. The most harmful ones--those which
Sinclair attacked in The Jungle and in several other books--were
the trusts. Trusts were corporations or groups of corporations
that were so big, they could monopolize an industry, squeezing
out the free competition that can keep prices down. Although a
Federal law, the Sherman Anti-Trust Act of 1890, banned such
trusts, the government used this weapon sparingly, and some
trusts survived well into the 20th century.

The free-booting ways of the trusts were an embarrassment to
backers of capitalism, the economic system based on private
ownership of the enterprises that produce goods and services.
In the 1980s, the U.S. government plays an active role in the
nation's capitalist economy. But in the 1800s, the government
kept its distance from business. The belief then was that the
natural course of supply and demand would regulate the economy
to the best interests of everyone.

The trusts made a mockery of that belief by keeping
competition down and prices high in the industries they
dominated. They did this by gobbling up small companies, some
of which might have found a method to produce and sell a product
at a lower price.

The trusts trampled on the public interest in other ways,
too. Sometimes they corrupted the political process by bribing
crooked politicians. During Sinclair's youth, voters who
thought elected officials spoke for them were often shocked to
find these officials acting solely in the interests of the "Beef
Trust," or the "Oil Trust," or some other concentrated industry.
As a result, many citizens lost faith in all elected
officials.