160 - Steinbeck Book Club: Dr. Daniel Rivers on To a God Unknown

May 29, 2025 00:46:05
160 - Steinbeck Book Club: Dr. Daniel Rivers on To a God Unknown
History of California Podcast
160 - Steinbeck Book Club: Dr. Daniel Rivers on To a God Unknown

May 29 2025 | 00:46:05

/

Show Notes

Today we're continuing our series on John Steinbeck. This year, we've been reading through all of Steinbeck's major works. We started with The Pastures of Heaven, and To a God Unknown is the second book in the series. We’ll be doing two podcast episodes on this novel for a couple of different reasons.

First and foremost, it’s probably the strangest, most confusing, and most exploratory of Steinbeck’s works.

I wanted to get a few different perspectives on the meaning of this book—the characters, the plot, the context, and some of the major themes. Our first guest is Dr. Daniel Rivers. Dr. Rivers is an associate professor of American Studies and Literature at San Jose State University and also serves as the director of the Martha Heesley Cox Center for Steinbeck Studies at San Jose State.

We had a great conversation. We talked about a lot of things, including Dr. Rivers’s own research and writing on this book.

There’s a lot to learn from this discussion, and I know you'll enjoy it.

Other Episodes

Episode 0

February 17, 2021 00:18:12
Episode Cover

42 - Land and the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo

In this episode, we explore land rights and the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo. 

Listen

Episode 0

June 25, 2021 00:49:29
Episode Cover

52 - An Interview with Dr. Iris Engstrand

Today we have an interview with Dr. Iris H. W. Engstrand. is a native Californian and indispensable historian of Southern California . Engstrand’s academic...

Listen

Episode

February 07, 2023 00:48:00
Episode Cover

79 - Tom Chaffin, Author of Pathfinder: John Charles Frémont and the Course of American Empire

Tom Chaffin was born and grew up in Atlanta and spent his early professional years in journalism, living in, among other places, Savannah, New...

Listen