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.
