Last Updated on July 29, 2019, by eNotes Editorial. Word Count: 234

• The Grapes of Wrath (1939) is Steinbeck's masterpiece about the Dust Bowl era of the 1930s which won the Pulitzer Prize. It was a timely, provocative book when published and has become a classic of American literature.
• In Dubious Battle (1936) is the first in Steinbeck's trilogy of books that look at the migrant labor problems in the 1930s. This is a book about labor organizers and a strike in California's apple fields. The book caused an uproar from both the political left and right. Of Mice and Men (1937) and The Grapes of Wrath (1939) followed in what has become known as Steinbeck's period of greatness.
• A Time of Troubles (1990), by Pieter Van Raven, is set during the Depression and tells about a boy and his father who move to California. Roy works in the orange orchards while his father tries to get a job with the growers association, and they end up on opposite sides of the labor issues there.
• Factories in the Field (1939), published in the same year as The Grapes of Wrath, is a factual account by a California state agency of the lives of migrant workers.
• Hard Times: An Oral History of the Great Depression (1970), by Studs Terkel, is a compilation of interviews with Americans who lived through the Depression.
• The Unfinished Nation (1993) is Alan Brinkley's concise history of the American people which provides a clear and readable look at the American past.