Book description
Sinclair's 1927 novel did for California's oil industry what
The Jungle
did for Chicago's meat-packing factories. In Oil
! Upton Sinclair fashioned a novel out of the oil scandals of the
Harding administration, providing in the process a detailed picture of
the development of the oil industry in Southern California. Bribery of
public officials, class warfare, and international rivalry over oil
production are the context for Sinclair's story of a genial independent
oil developer and his son, whose sympathy with the oilfield workers and
socialist organizers fuels a running debate with his father. Senators,
small investors, oil magnates, a Hollywood film star, and a crusading
evangelist people the pages of this lively novel. Upton Sinclair
(1878-1968), novelist and journalist, is best known for his novel about
the Chicago meatpacking industry, The Jungle
. A paperback edition of his I, Candidate for Governor
is available from California.
