The Ghost of Tom Joad guitar work and the lyrics on many of the tracks are a somber reflection of life in the mid-1990s in America and Mexico. The character of Tom Joad entered the American consciousness in John Steinbeck’s 1939 Pulitzer Prize-winning novel, "The Grapes of Wrath", set against the economic hardships of the Great Depression. This spawned a film version starring Henry Fonda, which in turn inspired folk singer Woody Guthrie to pen "The Ballad of Tom Joad". The album's release was followed by Springsteen's solo acoustic Ghost of Tom Joad Tour, which ran from 1995 to 1997 and consisted of mostly small
The Great Depression (book) The Great Depression (book) The Great Depression is a book written by Canadian author Pierre Berton. The period of time between the stock market crash of 1929 and the outbreak of World War II in 1939 had a terrible impact on the lives of all Canadians. The book, "The Great Depression" is a scalding indictment of the political leaders of the time, the police, the law and of big business. While successive governments at the Federal, Provincial and Municipal level debated over how to deal with the huge numbers of unemployed workers and who would finance government works programs or