Counting the Cats of Zanzibar: Upton Sinclair and the Decline of the Muckraking Movement.

To study any social movement is ultimately to examine an intricate social drama. With the publication of "The Jungle" in 1906, Upton Sinclair emerged from the stormy background of the muckraking movement to become one of that movement's principal actors. But in the 1920s, long after the Progressive reformers dusted and put away their muckrakers for other pursuits, Sinclair raked with indomitable zeal and enthusiasm. From 1918 to 1927, Sinclair created a remarkable series of muckraking tracts. Collectively called "The Dead Hand" series, it has been called one of the first thematic analyses of culture from the socialist perspective. Writing during a time of widespread disillusionment with American progressive reform, Sinclair championed the muckrakers' movement. But so cataclysmic were the effects of World War I and its aftermath that the fires of reform movements had been virtually extinguished. In the 1920s Sinclair was almost alone in the role of radical American social critic. It was not until the 1970s that historians and critics noted the historical and intellectual significance of "The Dead Hand" series. Critics suggest it is indeed unfortunate that eminent historians ignored Sinclair's preservation of the muckraking tradition. "The Dead Hand" series can be seen as a "rhetorica in vacuuo" which ultimately failed in its purposes for historical, rhetorical, and personal reasons. (Forty-one notes are included.) (Author/SG)