... and 40s and created the political impetus for the welfare state of later decades. The Great Depression struck California hard, just as it did countless other states and nations. It also helped remake California, writes Kevin Starr in the fourth instalment of his multi-volume history of the state. "The Depression brought a massive influx of hopeful refugees to California from elsewhere in the United States, including 300,000 new agricultural workers--the people of John Steinbeck's Grapes of Wrath ... only a moment the mutual commitment of George and Lennie has made the other characters t...

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