Tied To The Great Packing Machine

Ambitious in its historical scope and its broad range of topics, Tied to the Great Packing Machine tells the dramatic story of meatpacking’s enormous effects on the economics, culture, and environment of the Midwest over the past century and a half. Wilson Warren situates the history of the industry in both its urban and its rural settings—moving from the huge stockyards of Chicago and Kansas City to today’s smaller meatpacking communities—and thus presents a complete portrayal of meatpacking’s place within the larger agro-industrial landscape. Writing from the vantage point of twenty-five years of extensive research, Warren analyzes the evolution of the packing industry from its early period, dominated by the big terminal markets, through the development of new marketing and technical innovations that transformed the ways animals were gathered, slaughtered, and processed and the final products were distributed. In addition, he concentrates on such cultural impacts as ethnic and racial variations, labor unions, gender issues, and changes in Americans’ attitudes toward the ethics of animal slaughter and patterns of meat consumption and such environmental problems as site-point pollution and microbe contamination, ending with a stimulating discussion of the future of American meatpacking. Providing an excellent and well-referenced analysis within a regional and temporal framework that ensures a fresh perspective, Tied to the Great Packing Machine is a dynamic narrative that contributes to a fuller understanding of the historical context and contemporary concerns of an extremely important industry.

The Origins of the Arbor Day Song Since 1910, the Arbor Day Song has been a cherished part of Nebraska's tree-planting holiday tradition. Its author, Carl Milton Aldrich, belonged to an exceptionally talented family that included his mother, a Woman's Christian Temperance Union co-founder, and retail magnate Harry Selfridge. Born to pioneering associates of J. Sterling Morton, the Otoe County native became a leading meatpacking expert and prominent political activist who associated with some of the most powerful men in Gilded Age America. For thirty years, he expertly managed Nebraska City's largest business, the Morton-Gregson Company, and was one of Arbor Day's most influential promoters. Rachel Brupbacher, his great-great-granddaughter recounts the inspiring story of how he guided his hometown through both its golden years and darkest hours before selflessly working for the sake of its future.

J.L. Anderson seeks to change the belief that the Midwest lacks the kind of geographic coherence, historical issues, and cultural touchstones that have informed regional identity in the American South, West, and Northeast. The goal of this illuminating volume is to demonstrate uniqueness in a region that has always been amorphous and is increasingly so. Midwesterners are a dynamic people who shaped the physical and social landscapes of the great midsection of the nation, and they are presented as such in this volume that offers a general yet informed overview of the region after World War II. The contributors—most of whom are Midwesterners by birth or residence—seek to better understand a particular piece of rural America, a place too often caricatured, misunderstood, and ignored. However, the rural landscape has experienced agricultural diversity and major shifts in land use. Farmers in the region have successfully raised new commodities from dairy and cherries to mint and sugar beets. The region has also been a place where community leaders fought to improve their economic and social well-being, women redefined their roles on the farm, and minorities asserted their own version of the American Dream. The rural Midwest is a regional melting pot, and contributors to this volume do not set out to sing its praises or, by contrast, assume the position of Midwestern modesty and self-deprecation. The essays herein rewrite the narrative of rural decline and crisis, and show through solid research and impeccable scholarship that rural Midwesterners have confronted and created challenges uniquely their own.

From large-scale cattle farming to water pollution, meat— more than any other food—has had an enormous impact on our environment. Historically, Americans have been among the most avid meat-eaters in the world, but long before that meat was not even considered a key ingredient in most civilizations’ diets. Labor historian Wilson Warren, who has studied the meat industry for more than a decade, provides this global history of meat to help us understand how it entered the daily diet, and at what costs and benefits to society. Spanning from the nineteenth century to current and future trends, Warren walks us through the economic theory of food, the discovery of protein, the Japanese eugenics debate around meat, and the environmental impact of livestock, among other topics. Through his comprehensive, multifaceted research, he provides readers with the political, economic, social, and cultural factors behind meat consumption over the last two centuries. With a special focus on East Asia, Meat Makes People Powerful reveals how national governments regulated and oversaw meat production, helping transform virtually vegetarian cultures into major meat consumers at record speed. As more and more Americans pay attention to the sources of the meat they consume, Warren’s compelling study will help them not only better understand the industry, but also make more informed personal choices. Providing an international perspective that will appeal to scholars and nutritionists alike, this timely examination will forever change the way you see the food on your plate.

At the center of what was once the tallgrass prairie, Iowa has stood out for clearing the land and becoming one of the most productive agricultural states in the nation. But its success is challenged by multiple issues including but not limited to a decline in union representation of meatpacking workers; lack of demographic diversity; the advent of job-replacing mechanization; growing income inequality; negative contributions to and effects of climate change and environmental hazards. To become green, fair, and prosperous, Connerly argues that Iowa must reckon with its past and the fact that its farm economy continues to pollute waterways, while remaining utterly unprepared for climate change. Iowa must recognize ways in which it can bolster its residents’ standard of living and move away from its demographic tradition of whiteness. For development to be sustainable, society must balance it with environmental protection and social justice. Connerly provides a crucial roadmap for how Iowans can move forward and achieve this balance.

Examines how towns across the United States have grown thanks to the existence of one large business being run from the community, discusses how those single-business communities have influenced the American economy, and explores the benefits and consequences of these towns.

One of twentieth-century America’s most politically influential novels, The Jungle is Upton Sinclair’s hard-hitting exposé of the meat-packing industry. Journalist and novelist Upton Sinclair was a known muckraker who used his work to expose the horrific underbelly of the American government in the early 1900s. The Jungle is the fictional story of Jurgis Rudkus and his wife, Ona Lukoszaite. The couple immigrated to Chicago from Lithuania in the hopes of living the American Dream. Instead, they are met by the hardship and tragedy that awaited so many immigrants at the time. Jurgis secures a job in the meat-packing industry and quickly realises the disgusting treatment of animals and the horrendous working conditions that led to many injuries and deaths. Prior to writing the powerful novel, Sinclair spent seven weeks working in the Chicago meat-packing industry. He used his research to expose the corrupt factories in his writing. Originally published in serial form in 1905 for Appeal to Reason, the socialist newspaper, The Jungle was published as a book in 1906. The novel caused such public outcry that Sinclair’s work played a large part in the introduction of the 1906 Meat Inspection Act in the US. Read & Co. Classics has proudly republished this volume for the enjoyment of fans of socialist literature and those interested in the history of America’s meat industry.

“When people ask me what has happened in my long lifetime I do not refer them to the newspaper files and to the authorities, but to (Sinclair’s) novels.” -George Bernard Shaw “Practically alone among the American writers of his generation, Sinclair put to the American public the fundamental questions raised by capitalism in such a way that they could not escape them.” -Edmund Wilson Upton Sinclair’s 1906 bestseller The Jungle is a startling and powerful novel depicting the plight of Jurgis Rudkus, a Slavic worker who immigrated to the United States in the early 20th Century for a better life. His dream of a finding a job, building a family, and buying a home are initially fulfilled in the Union Stock Yards in Chicago. Work in the meatpacking industry proves to be a harrowing and desperate existence, and his personal life is beset by a succession of hardships and tragedy. As bleak as his journey is, Jurgis finally finds his light in a new-found political ideology. The Jungle is considered profoundly important in its exposure of despair at the margins of working-class life, and the atrocious descriptions of the unsanitary conditions in the meatpacking process. The novel led to revolutionary reform of the industrial food industry and workers’ rights, and powerfully addresses many of the same issues that we are still grappling with today. With a stunning new cover, and professionally typeset manuscript, this edition of The Jungle is both modern and readable.