Through a diversity of primary source resources that include works by politicians and literary figures, book reviews, and interviews, this book enables student readers to better understand literature of the Great Depression in context through original documents.

Oklahoma drought refugees seeking livelihood in California, rural white Mississippians, and African American migrants making new lives in Chicago all represented the dramatic transitions across the spectrum of American life during the Great Depression. These vastly different groups of Americans still shared common experiences of desperation and poverty during the 1930s. This book focuses on literary works by three Depression-era authors—William Faulkner, John Steinbeck, and Richard Wright—and supplies dozens of primary source documents that serve to illuminate the harsh realities of life in the 1930s and enable students to better appreciate key pieces in American literature from the Great Depression era.

The Depression Era: A Historical Exploration of Literature gives readers historical context for multiple works of American literature about the Great Depression through a wide range of features, including chronologies, essays explaining key events, and primary document excerpts as well as support materials that include activities, lesson plans, discussion questions, topics for further research, and suggested readings. The book's coverage includes William Faulkner's As I Lay Dying (1930), John Steinbeck's Of Mice and Men (1937), The Grapes of Wrath (1939), and Richard Wright's Native Son (1940).