With his intelligent poodle, Charlie, as his traveling companion, John Steinbeck re-explores his native United States in a camping truck. This book is comprised of his conversations with people throughout the country and his personal observations.

The Grapes of Wrath is a landmark of American literature. A portrait of the conflict between the powerful and the powerless, of one man's fierce reaction to injustice, and of one woman's stoical strength, the novel captures the horrors of the Great Depression and probes into the very nature of equality and justice in America. Although it follows the movement of thousands of men and women and the transformation of an entire nation, The Grapes of Wrath...

America between the Civil War and World War I serves as the background for the struggles of the Trask family.

The Joad family from Oklahoma has seen their share of hardship but when the Dust Bowl strikes and crops start to fail they, along with thousands of other midwesterners, head to California.