Here he found once strong, independent farmersthe backbone of rural Americaso reduced in dignity, beaten in spirit, sick, sullen, and defeated that they had been "cast down to a kind of subhumanity." He contrasts their misery with the hope offered by government resettlement camps, where self-help committees, child nurseries, quilting and sewing projects, and decent sanitation were restoring dignity and indeed saving lives. With the inquisitiveness of an investigative reporter and the emotional power of a novelist in his prime, Steinbeck toured the squatters' camps and Hoovervilles of California. Gathered in this important volume are seven newspaper articles on migrant farm workers that John Steinbeck wrote for "The San Francisco News" in 1936, three years before _The Grapes of Wrath_.
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