A Captain of Industry: Restored Classics to Go Edition

· Otbebookpublishing
Ebook
82
Pages
Eligible

About this ebook

Upton Sinclair's A Captain of Industry is a sharp satirical portrait of inherited wealth, social polish, and the moral evasions of America's ruling class. It follows Robert van Rensselaer, born into New York luxury and trained from childhood to be the perfect gentleman, as he grows into a charming but hollow society figure whose pleasures are protected by money and discretion. When his father finally demands responsibility, Robbie enters the family business and discovers the brutal world of finance, where power is won through conflict and compassion is treated as weakness. His rise leads him into the Hungerville Steel Mills crisis, a bitter struggle over wages, labor conditions, and union resistance. As workers face hunger, evictions, and violence, van Rensselaer responds with shutdowns, detectives, and strikebreaking, insisting the mills exist for his profit alone. The conflict exposes the human cost of industrial power, while a final shock—an old lover's death and the revelation of a hidden daughter—forces him into a new and uneasy responsibility just as he boards the Comet for the next stage of his polished, uncertain life. This edition has been fully restored with modern typesetting, custom cover design.
Upton Sinclair's A Captain of Industry is a sharp satirical portrait of inherited wealth, social polish, and the moral evasions of America's ruling class. It follows Robert van Rensselaer, born into New York luxury and trained from childhood to be the perfect gentleman, as he grows into a charmin...

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About the author

Upton Sinclair was an American novelist, journalist, and social reformer whose life was shaped by a fierce determination to expose injustice and give voice to the powerless. Born in Baltimore in 1878 and later associated with the progressive movements of the early twentieth century, he built a career out of blending fiction with investigation, using his writing as a tool for reform as much as for storytelling. Across a remarkably productive career, he produced dozens of novels, essays, and political works that brought public attention to labor exploitation, corruption, poverty, and the hidden costs of industrial capitalism. His writing often combined moral urgency with vivid realism, and he became one of the most influential muckraking authors in American literature. The central concerns of his work—economic inequality, corporate abuse, the struggle for dignity, and the conflict between individual conscience and social power—remain strikingly relevant today, especially in an era still wrestling with labor rights, wealth disparity, and public accountability. Sinclair's legacy lies not only in his literary output but in his belief that books can awaken readers to injustice and help shape a better society. Readers who are drawn to socially engaged fiction, historical reform movements, or stories that challenge power structures will find his work especially rewarding.

Upton Sinclair was an American novelist, journalist, and social reformer whose life was shaped by a fierce determination to expose injustice and give voice to the powerless. Born in Baltimore in 1878 and later associated with the progressive movements of the early twentieth century, he built a ca...

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