The Jungle is a novel written by Upton Sinclair and published in 1906. It is a fictionalized account of the harsh working and living conditions of immigrant laborers in the meatpacking industry in Chicago in the early 20th century.

The Jungle caused a national uproar and led to significant changes in food safety laws and regulations. The book is often credited with helping to create the Pure Food and Drug Act and the Meat Inspection Act, both of which were signed into law in 1906.

Upton Beall Sinclair Jr. (September 20, 1878 – November 25, 1968) was an American writer, muckraker, political activist and the 1934 Democratic Party nominee for governor of California who wrote nearly 100 books and other works in several genres. Sinclair's work was well known and popular in the first half of the 20th century, and he won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in 1943.