Babbitt #827176

Babbitt (1922), by Sinclair Lewis, is a satirical novel about American culture and society that critiques the vacuity of middle class life and the social pressure toward conformity. The controversy provoked by Babbitt was influential in the decision to award the Nobel Prize in Literature to Lewis in 1930.

Upton Sinclair (1878-1968) was an American author, journalist, and political activist. He is best known for his muckraking novel, The Jungle (1906), which exposed the unsanitary and dangerous conditions in the meatpacking industry in Chicago.