Playing the Defense: The Beef Trust, Cronyism, and the 1891 and 1906 Meat Inspection Acts.

The article focuses on the historical significance of the Meat Inspection Act of 1906, which expanded government oversight over meat production, often credited to Upton Sinclair's exposé of the Chicago Beef Trust, though Gabriel Kolko's revisionist interpretation suggests the trust lobbied for the law to establish a government-enforced cartel, leading to a critique of the traditional public interest narrative.