Obscene in the Extreme : The Burning and Banning of John Steinbeck's The Grapes of Wrath

Few books have caused as big a stir as John Steinbeck's The Grapes of Wrath , when it was published in April 1939.

By May, it was the nation's No. 1 bestseller, flying off store shelves at a rate of 10,000 copies a week.

But in Kern County, California,the Joads' newfound home,the book was burned publicly and banned from library shelves. Obscene in the Extreme tells the remarkable story behind that fit of censorship, a moment when several lives collided as part of a larger class struggle roiling the nation.

It is a superb historical narrative that serves as an engaging window into an extraordinary time of upheaval in America, when as Steinbeck put it, A revolution is going on."