Today’s episode is the second part of a two-episode series on John Steinbeck’s novel To a God Unknown. I wanted to do two episodes on this because the novel is fascinating, complex, and at times mystifying—and I wanted to get a few different perspectives to better understand it.
Today’s guest is Dr. Michael Boyden, a professor in both the Department of Modern Languages and Cultures as well as the Institute for Culture and History. His primary interest is in American literature, with a special focus on ecocriticism, Anthropocene studies, and critical sustainability studies.
I read a fascinating article he published on To a God Unknown, which examines the novel from an ecological perspective, and I was eager to talk with him about it. We cover a lot of ground—some topics echo my first conversation with Dr. Rivers—but we dive deeper into the ecological dimensions this time around.
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Dr. Tore Olsson is a historian of the United States since the Civil War, specializing in the U.S. South, popular culture, rural and agricultural...
In this episode, we talk about the forces driving toward the eventual conflict with Mexico.