UPTON SINCLAIR was the leading socialist American writer of the 20th century, publishing nearly a hundred books before his death in 1968. His work includes dozens of historical novels, numerous non-fiction works of muckraking journalism, socialist political tracts, drama, poetry, and several volumes of autobiography. Sinclair was also a socialist political organizer and was nearly elected governor of California in 1934. His most famous novel, The Jungle, published in 1906, exposed the horrific conditions in the US meatpacking industry, and is still a best selling book today. Jack London called it "the Uncle Tom's Cabin of wage slavery." Sinclair won the 1943 Pulitzer Prize for fiction for Dragon's Teeth, a novel set during the Nazi takeover of Germany during the 1930s. Oil!, his Southern California political satire, was the inspiration for the 2007 film There Will Be Blood. Numerous other works by Sinclair were adapted for film, television, and the stage. Sinclair engaged with and supported progressive and socialist work of all kinds. He founded a utopian community, edited works by other progressive writers and artists, was arrested at numerous protests, and traveled and lectured widely in support of progressive causes.
CHRIS HEDGES (Intro) is an American journalist and Presbyterian minister. He is best known as the author of War Is a Force That Gives Us Meaning, a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award. He was a foreign correspondent for nearly two decades, reporting for The New York Times, The Dallas Morning News, The Christian Science Monitor, and National Public Radio reporting from Latin American, the Middle East, Africa and the Balkans. He is a Senior Fellow at The Nation Institute and writes an online column for the web site Truthdig. He has taught at Columbia University, New York University, Princeton University and the University of Toronto.