ROBERT DOSS, JR.
Novelist • Historian • Essayist
The Long Harvest
The Long Harvest, a 114,000-word historical novel about an unassuming lettuce packer whose quiet integrity makes him the reluctant leader of one of the most violent and consequential labor conflicts in American history: the 1936 Salinas Lettuce Strike.
Will “Doc” Stone comes to California during the Great Depression looking for what millions of Americans sought: honest work, stability, and a chance to build a better life for his family. After finally finding steady work as a lettuce packer, Doc earns a reputation for integrity and practical judgment. He believes that hard work, mutual respect, and keeping one’s word can overcome almost any dispute. He has little interest in politics and even less desire to lead anyone.
As workers organize and their employers close ranks to protect the industry they built, fellow workers increasingly look to Doc’s steady judgment as he struggles to prevent bloodshed amid an ever-widening divide. But compromise is elusive as promises are broken, fear mounts, and competing loyalties dominate until Salinas erupts into mass arrests, tear gas, citizen militias, shootings, beatings, and bloody street battles.
Violence spreads, trust is betrayed, and the people who count on him begin paying the price, Doc discovers that integrity alone cannot stop a community from tearing itself apart. To remain true to his principles, he must decide how far he is willing to go–and whether continuing to ask others to sacrifice, or refusing to lead altogether, ultimately abandons the very people who have come to count on him.
The Battle of Salinas, September 16, 1936 (Underwood Archives)
Drawing on contemporaneous newspapers, congressional testimony, and National Labor Relations Board proceedings, The Long Harvest brings to life one of the most consequential yet least remembered chapters of American labor history.
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