Agriculture and working-class political culture: A lesson from The Grapes of Wrath

Abstract

John SteinbeckÕs 1939 novel can be given a reading that links events and the mentality of characters to mainstream schools of liberal and neo-liberal political theory: libertarianism, egalitarianism, and utilitarianism. Each of these schools is sketched in outline and applied to topics in rural political culture. While it is likely that Steinbeck himself would have identified with an egalitarian or utilitarian view, he resists the temptation to deny his Okie characters an authentic voice that matches none of these schools so well as it articulates an agrarian mentality once associated with Thomas Jefferson and today articulated by Wendell Berry. This reading of The Grapes of Wrath, in turn, can be interpreted as both a rebuke to contemporary social theorists who continue to impose an ill-fitting left-right dichotomy on working class political culture in rural America and as a roadmap suggesting ways that philosophy and rural sociology might engage one another more directly and productively with respect to contemporary rural development and environmental quality issues.

From the editor

“…Other books IÕve read that may fit the definition of a classic include PollanÕs The OmnivoreÕs Dilemma and SchlosserÕs Fast Food Nation. Of course, there are novels should be added to this list, such as The Jungle by Upton Sinclair and The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck because of their strong food and agrarian themes (see Thompson, 2007). Are there other books that should be considered classics?…”