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
Great Depression in Latin America pulled out their troops in 1936. In Brazil and in other Latin American countries such as Mexico, responses to the Great Depression also led to a strengthening of the industrialization process (begun in the nineteenth century). Brazil needed an economic alternative to the highly devalued coffee, its main commodity at the time. The Vargas government started to purchase and burn coffee from the farmers, in order to avoid their complete bankruptcy. Great Depression in Latin America The Great Depression which followed the US stock market crash of 1929 badly affected the countries of Latin America. Chile, Peru, and Bolivia were,