Episode 106: “The Wages of Spin,” or John Steinbeck’s In Dubious Battle

Chris and Jesse devour Steinbeck's 1936 novel In Dubious Battle, which follows a group of communist agitators who try to establish a strike in California's Torgas Valley. The lads agree that Steinbeck's novel boasts incredible sensory detail and beautiful prose, and they go digging into just what, exactly, Steinbeck wanted to say in this short, sharp account of a labor struggle—it's not a capitalist novel, for sure, but is it a Marxist novel?