John Steinbeck, In Dubious Battle

Michael J. Meyer (DePaul University)

The Literary Encyclopedia. Volume 3.2.4: American (US) Writing and Culture: Postwar and Contemporary, 1945-present.
Vol. editors: Sofia Ahlberg (Uppsala University), Patrick Chura (University of Akron), Emory Elliott (University of California, Riverside), Dale Enggass (University of Utah), Christopher Hugh Gair (University of Glasgow), Matthew Hofer (University of New Mexico), Stephen E. Meats (Pittsburg State University), Kerry Myler (Birmingham Newman University), Justin Parks (UiT - The Arctic University of Norway), Nick Selby (University of East Anglia)

Dates

First circulation or publication 1936

Places

United States (Country of Origin)

Genres and Modes

Novel

Resources

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Published in 1936,

In Dubious Battle

was Steinbeck's fifth novel and took its title from a phrase borrowed from John Milton's

Paradise Lost

. This passage records the rebellion of Satan against God and describes the resulting war in heaven: the battle Satan engages in has dubious worth since it will ultimately prove fruitless. The book was Steinbeck's first attempt to address the political radicalism that flourished in California in the early 1930s, a radicalism that culminated in Upton Sinclair's campaign for the office of governor in 1934 as a Democratic candidate supported by the EPIC movement (End Poverty in California), an organization with socialist leanings.

Steinbeck was keenly attuned to the injustices suffered by migrant workers during the Great Depression, and he was intent on

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2210 words

Citation: Meyer, Michael J.. "In Dubious Battle". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 31 March 2010 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/sworks.php?rec=true&UID=4523, accessed 25 November 2024.]

John Steinbeck, In Dubious Battle

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