• America in the 1930s
• Grapes of Wrath and John Steinbeck
• Teenagers in the Great Depression
• The Dust Bowl and the Great Depression

America in the 1930’s

1. 1930’s Money and Inflation (see the inflation from 1930 to 1939 on prices from houses, gasoline, food, clothing and more. Site also features events in the 1930’s, popular culture, toys and inventions)
2. 1930’s Timeline
3. America in the 1930’s (movies, news, documentaries, slang, books, comic strips, radio and music, timeline, etc.)
4. American Cultural History – 1930 – 1939
5. Fireside Chats of Franklin D. Roosevelt (contains both the transcript and the audio version)

Grapes of Wrath

1. Present at the Creation: The Grapes of Wrath (includes behind-the-scenes information on the writing of the novel, a scene from the film, and the Woody Guthrie 1940 song “Tom Joad.”
2. The Grapes of Wrath (historical background, author biography, related works, related resources)
3. The Grapes of Wrath Online Text (for easiest reading, select either “Flip Book” or PDF on the left side of the screen)
4. The Grapes of Wrath Website (contains printing history, chapter outlines, character list, map of places mentioned in the novel and more)

John Steinbeck

1. 1962 Nobel Prize for Literature (includes short biography of John Steinbeck, the Presentation Speech, a short video of the presentation, bibliography of his works, his banquet speech accepting the award, and additional resources)
2. Center for Steinbeck Studies (San Jose State University – includes a biography and a list of his works)
3. Death in the Dust (John Steinbeck’s first-person account of the conditions of a California squatter’s camp three years before writing The Grapes of Wrath)
4. John Steinbeck (from Wikipedia)
5. Steinbeck Timeline

Okies

1. Okies (from Wikipedia)
2. Okies: Dust Bowl Migrants from Oklahoma and the Plains
3. Weedpatch Camp (the Arvin Federal Government Camp which was Steinbeck’s basis for Weedpatch Camp)

Photographs

1. America from the Great Depression to World War II (over 160,000 black & white and 1600 color photographs)
2. Migrant Labor Camp Photographs
3. Migrant Mother (tells the story behind the famous photo that Dorothea Lange took in a migrant camp in 1936)
4. Photo Essay on the Great Depression
5. Photographs of the Great Depression, Dust Bowl, Migrant Workers

Route 66 “The Mother Road”

1. History of Route 66
2. Route 66 “The Mother Road”

The Dust Bowl and the Great Depression

1. Americans in Depression and War (from the U.S. Department of Labor)
2. Archival Resources on the Great Depression (from the Carl Albert Center Congressional Archives at the University of Oklahoma)
3. NASA explains the “Dust Bowl” Drought
4. The Dust Bowl of the 1930’s (from the Living History Farm)
5. The Forgotten People (reports by Dorothea Lange calling for governmental response to improve conditions for the migrant laborers affected by the Depression and the Dust Bowl refugees)
6. The Migrant Experience (information about the migrants during the Dust Bowl)
7. Timeline of the Dust Bowl (from PBS)
8. Voices from the Dust Bowl (from the Library of Congress) (audio recordings, photographs, manuscripts, publications and ephemera from migrant work camps in central California in 1940 and 1941)

The Worst Hard Time and Timothy Egan

1. Interview with Timothy Egan
2. The Worst Hard Time – 2006 National Book Award Winner – Nonfiction (National Book Award page, includes information about the book and author, an excerpt from the book, and a link to hear Timothy Egan reading from the book on NPR)
3. The Worst Hard Time (conversation with the author Timothy Egan, publisher’s page, dust bowl history overviews, book reviews, etc)

Woody Guthrie

1. American Masters: Woody Guthrie (PBS)
2. Timeline of Woody Guthrie (from the Library of Congress)
3. Woody Guthrie (includes biography, lyrics, facts about the Dust Bowl and more)

Young Adult/Teen Websites

1. 1930’s Fads and Fashions
2. Films of the 1930’s
3. Newspaper articles regarding the stock market crash of 1929
4. Then and Now Prices – How much did things cost in the 1930’s?

Grapes of Wrath and John Steinbeck

1. “Tom Joad” (lyrics of the song written by Woody Guthrie inspired by The Grapes of Wrath)
2. American Writers: John Steinbeck (interactive scrapbook)
3. CliffsNotes for The Grapes of Wrath (learn about the author, character map, chapter summaries, character analyses, and critical essays)
4. Facts about The Grapes of Wrath
5. Pigasus (an explanation of the flying pig symbol Steinbeck used as his trademark)
6. Steinbeck Country (map of California showing the towns where Steinbeck’s novels are set)

Teenagers in the Great Depression

1. Boxcar Boys and Girls of the Great Depression (companion site to the book “Riding the Rails” by Errol Uys – also click on the “letters” link to read excerpts of letters from boxcar boys and girls)
2. Children and the Great Depression (learn about how the Great Depression affected children and teens)
3. Dear Mrs. Roosevelt (during the Great Depression, thousands of young people wrote to First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt for help, asking for clothing, money and other forms of assistance – read their letters here)
4. Riding the Rails (companion to the PBS film about the 250,000 teenagers who living on the road in America at the height of the Great Depression.)
5. Teenage Hoboes in the Great Depression
6. Weedpatch School (photos of the Weedpatch School as portrayed in The Grapes of Wrath)

The Dust Bowl and the Great Depression

1. Bound for Glory: The Life and Times of Woody Guthrie
2. Drought in the Dust Bowl Years
3. Surviving the Dust Bowl (companion to the PBS series, includes eyewitness accounts, timeline, maps, people & events)
4. The Dust Bowl and the Great Depression (from the Library of Congress)
5. The Great Depression (includes information on the Dust Bowl)
6. The Great Depression and the New Deal (includes the New Deal Document Library, The Great Depression and the Arts, as well as articles, short stories and poems written by teens in the 1930’s)

Pikes Peak Library District P.O. Box 1579 Colorado Springs, CO 80901 (719) 531-6333

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