Chapters 1-10
a. I studied the migrants from the Great Plains and the 'Oakies' who moved to California in the 1930's from the Dust Bowl. Contrary to popular belief, these migrants were not just poor farms evicted from their arid and useless land. As the census shows, only about half were farmers. Because of the collapse in the economy, white-collar workers were also moving out of the central states to California and to the East. Thousands who attempted the journey were also killed by malnutrition and pneumonia caused by the massive amounts of dust that they inhaled every minute of every day. About one million farmers left the Dust Bowl just like Joad and his family. About 250 thousand of those landed in California to work in the Central Valley to grow crops like the garlic of Gilroy, orchards of Sunnyvale, and grapes of Napa. Dust Bowl Wiki