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"Secondary or college teachers and students
will find this companion volume useful for building contextual information
and making connections between Steinbeck's novel and actual writings
of the time period in which the story takes place."
Journal
of Adolescent & Adult Literacy (print)
When The Grapes of Wrath was published in
1939, it had an explosive effect on the public, calling attention to the
problems of migrant farm workers during the Great Depression. This sourcebook provides a rich source of primary materials on the
period and the plight of the migrant farm worker that bring to life the
problems Steinbeck immortalized in the novel. Included are interviews with eyewitnesses to the Dust Bowl, firsthand accounts and
investigative reports of the causes and effects of the Great Depression, letters, diaries and autobiographies of migrant farm workers in the
1930s, newspaper articles and editorials
of the period, affidavits by union
activists, and other unique materials, many of which have never before
appeared in print.
In addition, the online sourcebook provides the user access to:
- National John
Steinbeck Center, containing a wealth of resources on Steinbeck, his work, and
the people he wrote about
- Grapes of Wrath
Images and Information. This site
offers the publishing history of Steinbeck’s novel, as well as images of the
original dust jacket and posters for the film adaptation
- Voices from the Dust
Bowl: The Charles L. Todd and Robert Sonkin Migrant Worker Collection. The Library of Congress American Memory
Project provides photo collages, audio files of performers, manuscript
materials, and publications documenting the conditions of those living in Dust
Bowl states during the Great Depression
- The New Deal Network,
an educational guide to the Great Depression of the
1930s contains thousands of photographs and original documents from the Great
Depression
- National Historic
Route 66 Federation includes a history of Route 66,
photo galleries of sites along the route and of early Route 66 postcards, and
current news about the highway. Also
included: A state-by-state map of Route 66,
along with a detailed photo gallery of the highway, and information on the Californian communities
through which Route 66 passes
- Photo Galleries of
the Great Depression with more than 5,000 categorized photographs.
- Oakland Museum of
California's Dorothea Lange Photonegative Collection, containing more than 1,200
photonegatives of Lange’s photographs of migrant workers for the Farm Security Administration Collection, along with a
detailed essay on Lange’s work.
- Dorothea
Lange's "Migrant Mother" Photographs in the Farm SecurityAdministration Collection: An Overview.
This site contains
Lange’s "Migrant Mother," which has become an international symbol of
the suffering of migrant farmers during the Great Depression.
- Video clip of a
duststorm during the Dust Bowl
- Surviving the Dust
Bowl: Timeline, Maps, Eyewitness Accounts, People and Events
- New York Times
Headlines and Articles on the 1929 Stock Market Crash
- Economic History of
the 20th Century: The Great
Crash and The Great Slump
- FDR’s inaugural
address and fireside chats
- Review of the 1940
movie
- 1997 Associated press
Investigation into illegal child labor in the United States
- Glossary of cultural
references and historical idioms from The
Grapes of Wrath
- Web-based study
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