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In Dubious Battle is a classic novel by American author John Steinbeck, published in 1936. Set in the apple orchards of rural California, the novel follows the story of a migrant worker's strike and the attempt of 'the party' (an unnamed representation of the American Communist Party or a similar organisation) to organise, bolster and provide for the strikers. Featuring a cast of characters, the novel centres around new party member Jim Nolan and party veteran Mac. To begin with, the struggles of Jim and other workers are deeply sympathetic, but as mob mentality overrules critical judgement, the actions of the strikers become increasingly ugly, and the moral thread of the novel becomes ever more unclear. Tackling similar themes of the exploitation of the rural poor as the author's later and more famous novel The Grapes of Wrath, In Dubious Battle is considered one of Steinbeck's first great works.
