Upton Sinclair's iconic novel 'The Jungle' was based on wild exaggeration

"The Jungle," Upton Sinclair's grisly novel about working conditions in the American meatpacking industry in the late 19th century, has been a fixture of college campuses and liberal bookshelves for decades. Sinclair's novel was inspired by his work as an investigative journalist exploring slaughterhouses in Chicago, and the massive public outcry it caused led to the passage of the Meat Inspection Act.

However, Glenn Beck reveals that Sinclair chose to publish a novel rather than the newspaper articles he had originally planned because he wanted to distort the facts about what he uncovered to make the story more shocking.

"He went in and worked at this meatpacking place and then made things up to be able to tell this story," Glenn explains. "It's such an incredible story what lengths this guy went to."

Teddy Roosevelt, who pushed for the creation of the FDA, was mortified when Sinclair privately confessed he had greatly exaggerated the conditions at U.S. slaughterhouses.

"Roosevelt is so disgusted by Sinclair that he wants nothing to do with him. ... He said he was a despicable human being because he didn't care about any facts," Glenn says.

Watch Glenn's full report on Upton Sinclair on "hiSTORY" at 5 PM ET on TheBlaze TV.

To see more from Glenn, visit his channel on TheBlaze.