“Hey, everyone! Thanks for tuning in!
This is the UCSB Undergraduate Journal of History Podcast. This season, we are sharing with you our archive stories of unboxing the stuff of history from the vaults of the UCSB Library Special Research Collections.
I’m your host, Enri Lala, a third-year History & Global Studies major here at the History Journal.
In today’s episode of Unboxed, we delve into the exceptional story of Upton Sinclair’s 1934 campaign for Governor of California. We will cover the context leading up to the race, why it stands out in the state’s history and its lasting legacy on our politics.
To see some rare images of today’s archival collection, follow us on Instagram at @ucsbhistjournal.
Alright, let’s see what that gray Hollinger box has in store for us today.
Act I:
The Upton Sinclair collection comes in a half-sized dark blue document box, with its materials divided into numerous folders upon opening. The folders add up to thirteen, covering virtually every aspect of Sinclair’s campaign. As is to be expected of the famed novelist, much of it is his own writing, from his ambitious long-form pamphlet “I, Governor of California and How I Ended Poverty” to its rather hilariously titled sequel “I, Candidate for Governor: And How I Got Licked,” in which he attacks the big business-media coalition that ultimately defeated his candidacy.
But first, who was Upton Sinclair?
If you’re anything like me, what immediately comes to mind is his career as a novelist. His magnum opus, of course, is The Jungle. Released in 1905, at the height of the muckraking age, it was defined by exposing American business and government corruption. The story focused on the appalling working conditions of Chicago’s factories. Though fictional, it roused public opinion and helped lead to the Pure Food and Drug Act and the Meat Inspection Act of 1906. It can more broadly be identified as a key landmark in the turn from the corporate-dominated Gilded Age of the latter half of the nineteenth century to the reform-minded Progressive Age that defined the early twentieth.
Like any significant figure, Sinclair’s early background profoundly shaped his worldview. He was born in Baltimore to a British-descended family that had long been prosperous before his parents fell into financial hardship. Witnessing affluence and poverty in childhood had a lifelong effect on his political beliefs, shaping his novels and political career trajectory.
His family moved to Queens, New York, and he enrolled at the City College of New York at just fourteen. Here, he began his career as an author, paying his tuition by writing jokes, dime novels, and magazine articles. After graduating in 1897, he enrolled at Columbia Law for two years, though he dedicated most of his time and effort to his passion of writing. Here, he also developed various interests – including learning three languages. He left Columbia without a degree and wrote his first three novels in his first years out of university.
In 1904, he went undercover in Chicago’s meatpacking plants for several weeks. This first-hand research led to his muckraking novel The Jungle, an instant major work that established him as a first-rate novelist of his age. He moved to Pasadena, California, in 1916 and called the state home for four decades.
With that background in mind, let’s delve into what the collection actually tells us.
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Alex: History Majors! Are you struggling with your major requirements? Having difficulty signing up for history classes? Do you have questions about writing a senior honors thesis?
Well, you’re in luck! Did you know the History Department has its own undergraduate academic advisor? That’s right, Kiara Actis has all these answers and more!
You can drop by her office, HSSB 4036, and speak to her in person on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Thursdays from 8 AM to Noon or from 12:30 PM until 4:30 PM.
If that doesn’t work, book an appointment online or email her at undergraduate-advisor@history.ucsb.edu.
Remember, Kiara is the HISTORY advisor. So, if you have questions about General Education or other UCSB requirements, contact the College of Letters and Sciences advisors. They’re better equipped to answer those questions.
But with that said, let’s get back to this episode of Unboxed.
Act II
The collection’s folders include book reviews, personal letters, and leaflets, all reflecting, in one way or another, the deeply turbulent state of American politics in the mid-1930s. From the moment you open the collection, you’re taken aback by the sheer detail with which Sinclair laid out his program. For one, the “I, Governor of California and How I Ended Poverty” pamphlet is some sixty-four pages long! Compare that to the snippets and short-form interviews that often define our perceptions of candidates today.
In this pamphlet, he laid out the details of his platform. The State of California would expropriate factories and farmland whose owners had not paid taxes, then hire the masses of unemployed Californians to make them more productive. This cooperative effort, which echoed elements of Soviet collectivization policy, coupled with his proposal to introduce the State’s first progressive income tax, was meant to address the crippling unemployment and inequality California found itself in amidst the Great Depression.
What’s covered in the collection can be considered a separate second act to Sinclair’s groundbreaking early days as a muckraker. Even here, though, his fame as a writer is referenced often. Reviews of his pamphlet tout him as one of America’s great literary minds and, importantly to his campaign, the best pamphleteer of his day. This speaks to a different era and method of campaigning, where long works, including fiction, could detail one’s platform. Huey Long’s fictional My First Days in the White House, in which the controversial Louisiana senator lays out his populist platform before his assassination a year ahead of the 1936 presidential elections, comes to mind here.
Finally, he details how his End Poverty In California (conveniently abbreviated EPIC) beat the odds to claim the Democratic gubernatorial nomination through what he describes as a groundswell of anti-establishment support. After his pamphlet’s publication, almost 800 so-called EPIC clubs were erected in fifty district organizations throughout the state. Sinclair was entering the 1934 elections at the head of an unprecedented political movement.
[UCSB History Club Sponsor Message]: The UCSB History Club is a major supporter of the Undergraduate Journal of History, and we would love to see listeners of Unboxed join us at History Club Events. The History Club at UC Santa Barbara is a student-run club that meets weekly during the academic year. We host faculty and graduate student speakers as part of our Fireside Chat series, get together to play games and study, host potlucks, and holiday-themed events, and travel to local heritage sites around Santa Barbara. You can find us on Instagram @ucsbhistoryclub. We hope to see you at a History Club meeting soon. Ok, now back to the episode of Unboxed – let’s hear how this one ends!
Music Intro:
Erick: I hope you’re enjoying this episode of Unboxed! My name is Erick, and I’m one of the editors at the UCSB Undergraduate Journal of History. Today, I’m joined by Jasmine, a Member of the UCSB History Club. So, Jasmine—at your meetings, do you all just sit around debating who had the better mustache, Napoleon or Stalin?
Jasmine: Oh, absolutely. It gets heated. You’d be surprised how passionate people get about historical facial hair.
Erick: I can imagine! But really, what’s the History Club all about?
Jasmine: We’re all about bringing history to life—whether through discussions, guest speakers at our fireside chats, or just having fun with board games. We also organize off-campus events, giving students a break from academics while still engaging with history in exciting ways. We meet every Tuesday evening in HSSB 4020.
Erick: Sounds like a great time! So if you love history—or just want to debate legendary mustaches—check out the History Club! Follow them on Instagram @UCSBHistoryClub, and join their GroupMe to stay updated on upcoming events.
Erick: Stay tuned, and stay curious, Gauchos!
Music Outro:
Act III
It was once he secured the Democratic nomination that the real battle began. One of the most striking recurring themes in the collection is Sinclair’s portrayal of his opponents. Both in articles for his own newspaper, titled Upton Sinclair’s EPIC News – throughout the campaign and in post-election work lamenting the results – he describes a coalition of financial, media and entrenched political interests coming together to snuff out his reformist agenda in the crib. Though hard to imagine today, Republicans held an overwhelming majority in California’s statewide offices, its Congressional delegation and voter registration – even by 1934, when the State was several years into the Great Depression.
This polarized dynamic touches on one of the major themes of the day: redbaiting. In one article, Sinclair describes himself at some length as a socialist opposed to the tyrannies of full-fledged communism. This did not eliminate his perception by moderates and Republicans as excessively radical, though, with characterizations of his program as attempting to “sovietize California” resonating with many.
In November, incumbent Republican Frank Merriam won the race for the governor’s mansion with an eleven percent advantage, while Progressive Party candidate Raymond Haight gained 13 percent.
Sinclair did not get to govern California, but he did help shape American politics in several ways. First, many of his proposals helped shape the evolving New Deal, whose early stages Sinclair saw as too moderate and ineffective. Though many of these plans had begun to take shape before 1934, they mainly focused on “production-for-use” projects and put hundreds of thousands back to work on mass construction, conservation, and other initiatives.
It is just as fascinating to reflect on how much of our current political discourse can be traced back to that day and age. How much, even, can be attributed to Sinclair’s rhetoric? This might seem ridiculous initially, but consider this excerpt from one of the many articles that made up I, Candidate for Governor: And How I Got Licked, which was turned into a nonfiction book.
“It was intolerable to our opponents that we should change anything; they wanted us to be the same kind of stupid persons as themselves.” [I, Candidate for Governor: And How I Got Licked, Installment 20]
There are, of course, significant differences. For one, in Sinclair’s day, this brand of rhetoric came primarily from the left, which is no longer the case. Secondly, though anti-establishmentarian, the sheer sophistication in Sinclair’s use of language is in a different league from what we witness today.
Last but certainly not least, this was the first California election which attracted significant amounts of Hollywood money and attention, as the film industry was still in its early stages. Because of its mix of sharp polarization and hyper-intensive media coverage, it has been credited with helping found the media-dominated politics of the last several decades.
Summary
So, today, we covered the story of Upton Sinclair, the muckraking journalist turned charismatic and energetic reformer. Though attracting considerable popular support in his adopted home state of California, Sinclair ultimately lost the election, which he and his supporters attributed to the entrenchment of the state’s financial interests and the media’s complicity. Though defeated, Sinclair left more of a mark on New Deal politics and our collective psyche than hisvictoriousl opponent.
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Thanks for listening to this episode of Unboxed. Be sure to join us next week when [ ] shares their archive story of unboxing [ ] from the UCSB Library Special Research Collections. To see some images of today’s archival collection, check out our Instagram page @ucsbhistjournal, and follow us on Spotify at the Undergraduate Journal of History: The Podcast.
My name’s Enri, and it’s been a pleasure speaking with you. Until next time.
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