All are welcome to join the Museum and Bloomington Public Library on Tuesday, May 5 at 7:00 p.m. for the second History Reads Book Club for 2026, in person at Bloomington Public Library or online via Zoom.
This quarter's book to be discussed will be The Jungle by Upton Sinclair. The Jungle depicts the harsh lives of immigrants in the United States, particularly in Chicago and other industrialized areas. Based on Sinclair's investigation of Chicago's Union Stock Yards for Chicago's socialist newspaper, Appeal to Reason, he created the fictional family of Jurgis Rudkus to tell the story of immigrants who faced poverty, corruption, and horrific working and living conditions in the early twentieth-century American meatpacking businesses. Undercover, Upton documents the laborers' arduous labor, the inequities of "wage-slavery," and the perplexing jumble of urban life. Sinclair's work was so alarming that the government launched an investigation, which is chronicled in this engrossing novel that develops into a seminal piece of social change literature.
History Reads meets quarterly in February, May, August, and November. Meetings are at 7pm and are typically* offered both in the Conference Room at the library and online via Zoom. People can join a book club at any time and do not have to attend previous book club meetings to participate.
Registration is ONLY REQUIRED for online participants and can be completed by clicking here, in person at the Adult Help Desk on the library's second floor, or by calling 309.590.6168.
Contact the Adult Help Desk at 309.590.6168 or reference@bloomingtonlibrary.org to check out or reserve a print copy of the book. Digital copies of this book (eBook or eAudiobook) may be available through the Libby or Hoopla apps.
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All are welcome to join the Museum and Bloomington Public Library on Tuesday, May 5 at 7:00 p.m. for the second History Reads Book Club for 2026, in person at Bloomington Public Library or online via Zoom.
This quarter's book to be discussed will be The Jungle by Upton Sinclair. The Jungle depicts the harsh lives of immigrants in the United States, particularly in Chicago and other industrialized areas. Based on Sinclair's investigation of Chicago's Union Stock Yards for Chicago's socialist newspaper, Appeal to Reason, he created the fictional family of Jurgis Rudkus to tell the story of immigrants who faced poverty, corruption, and horrific working and living conditions in the early twentieth-century American meatpacking businesses. Undercover, Upton documents the laborers' arduous labor, the inequities of "wage-slavery," and the perplexing jumble of urban life. Sinclair's work was so alarming that the government launched an investigation, which is chronicled in this engrossing novel that develops into a seminal piece of social change literature.
History Reads meets quarterly in February, May, August, and November. Meetings are at 7pm and are typically* offered both in the Conference Room at the library and online via Zoom. People can join a book club at any time and do not have to attend previous book club meetings to participate.
Registration is ONLY REQUIRED for online participants and can be completed by clicking here, in person at the Adult Help Desk on the library's second floor, or by calling 309.590.6168.
Contact the Adult Help Desk at 309.590.6168 or reference@bloomingtonlibrary.org to check out or reserve a print copy of the book. Digital copies of this book (eBook or eAudiobook) may be available through the Libby or Hoopla apps.
LOCATION:BLM Public Library\, Community Room\, 205 E. Olive St. Bloomington\, Illinois 61701 CLASS:PUBLIC END:VEVENT END:VCALENDAR