In the 1930s, thousands of American farmers fled theirdrought-ridden and Depression-ravaged homelands of Oklahoma and Arkansas for
California, where they hoped to find a better life.
What they did find was exploitation and more misery, as memorably chronicled by John Steinbeck in his novel The Grapes of Wrath. Two young academics recorded the stories and music of these all-American refugees, and it is their first-hand accounts of events that can be heard in this programme. Producer Jolyon Jenkins