171 - Steinbeck Book Club: Tortilla Flat with Dr. Michael Zeitler

December 01, 2025 00:46:10
171 - Steinbeck Book Club: Tortilla Flat with Dr. Michael Zeitler
History of California Podcast
171 - Steinbeck Book Club: Tortilla Flat with Dr. Michael Zeitler

Dec 01 2025 | 00:46:10

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Show Notes

In this episode, host Jordan Mattox sits down with Dr. Michael Zeitler for an expansive conversation about John Steinbeck’s Tortilla Flat — its mythic structure, its treatment of poverty, the nature of friendship and communal codes, and how Steinbeck used the Monterey landscape to explore deep questions about history and identity. Together they examine the novel’s tragic undercurrents, its echoes of World War I trauma, its links to Mice and Men, Grapes of Wrath, In Dubious Battle, and Cannery Row, and why Steinbeck’s early works continue to provoke debate about caricature, class, and representation. Dr. Zeitler also reflects on Hardy, Haney’s Beowulf, the anthropology of place, car mechanics in Steinbeck, and the philosophical lineage running from Emerson to Ellison. A wide-ranging, insightful discussion for Steinbeck fans and California history enthusiasts alike.

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