This day in history - May 6, 1940: John Steinbeck is awarded the Pulitzer Prize for The Grapes of Wrath

By Richard K. Barry

For its sympathetic depiction of the plight of the poor during the Great Depression, the Associated Farmers of California branded the The Grapes of Wrath communist propaganda. It seems that any sympathetic assessment of the struggles of poorer Americans will incur the wrath of those who benefit most from the gross inequalities of wealth and power in our society.

If Steinbeck were alive today, I have no doubt that he would find himself on one of Glenn Beck's chalkboards alongside all those other leftist radicals Beck believes to be destroying the country.

(Cross-posted to Lippmann's Ghost.)