OBSCENE IN THE EXTREME The Burning and Banning of John Steinbeck's The Grapes of Wrath RICK WARTZMAN

"Rick Wartzman's revelatory and stunning book on the burning and banning of The Grapes of Wrath could be of now as well as of then. The Neanderthals of Steinbeck's own county are all around. Thank God for the librarians and the Joads—Ma and Tom."
—Studs Terkel

"Rick Wartzman gives us a dramatic glimpse of a dark American past, where John Steinbeck's The Grapes of Wrath is burned as obscene and farm workers are prosecuted as Communists for trying to form a union. It was only 1939. Are the seeds of hate dead?"
—Anthony Lewis

"Rick Wartzman has made a dramatic and tension-filled narrative out of the story of how The Grapes of Wrath was banned in Kern County, and he has given us a chapter of our history that many Americans might not know. His new book is invaluable and exciting."
—Susan Straight

"In telling this unique tale, Wartzman artfully weaves the personal and the political in a book that readers will find engaging on more than one level."
—Publishers Weekly

"Briskly written—a valuable guide to an explosive aspect of the free-speech issue."
—Kirkus

"[An] engaging look at the long-forgotten campaign to quash a modern classic... A live account"
Mother Jones

"Wartzman, the co-author of the excellent The King of California: J.G. Boswell and the Making of a Secret American Empire, has written another fascinating piece of California history."
—The Oregonian

"A must-read . . . compelling and well-researched."
—Bakersfield Californian

"Lively . . . a snapshot of a fascinating moment in national history . . . commendable in its fairness. . . .Wartzman deserves our thanks."
—Cleveland Plain Dealer

"Highly readable...meticulously researched, well crafted and rich in historic detail."
—Tucson Citizen

"This case study of an attempt to censor John Steinbeck's Grapes of Wrath exposes the wrongheadedness of censorship in a way that more theoretical arguments often fail to do… This is a skillfully written, passionate book… Wartzman has really done his homework, and he tells the story dramatically, using character and dialogue to propel the narrative."
—Booklist

"In these current times of bubbles and bursts, foreclosed-upon homes and entire industries confronting their own mortality, it's good to have a fresh history such as this to remind us of what has gone on before, and to assure that the times will indeed change—eventually…. The Central Valleys of the 1930s … for many people have been reduced to emblematic photos… Wartzman puts some life on those images… A skillfully drawn reminder of the human toll of deep poverty, intolerance and the unfettered whims of those who control the purse strings."
—Scott Martelle, Los Angeles Times

"A vivid account."
—Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

"An important and illuminating new book."
-Metro Newspaper

"A fast-paced narrative…. Enlightening and well worth reading."
-Salinas Californian

"With a novelist's skill and journalist's acumen, Wartzman uses the incident [of the book ban] as a springboard to explore the context of those turbulent times, the personalities and motivations of those involved and the notion of censorship as a political weapon."
—Minneapolis Star Tribune

"Well-researched, readable…. It's a cautionary tale, particularly relevant in light of the vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin, who once allegedly asked the librarian in her own small town of Wasilla, Alaska, whether censorship was all right."
—Boston Globe

"Obscene in the Extreme is much more than a conventional book-banning saga. It richly chronicles one of the epic tales of the 1930s, the struggle between left and right, hired hands and big farmers, migrant Okies and natives, in the towns and fields of California…. Unfailingly fair to all, Wartzman brings to life a rich cast, ranging from the radical journalist Carey McWilliams to the farm works chosen by his employers to burn a copy of The Grapes of Wrath on the streets."
—Columbia Journalism Review