The result of a worldwide effort to assess both the current state of critical understanding of John Steinbeck’s works and the extent of his cultural influenceAs a writer who, beginning in the 1930s, illuminated the lives of ordinary people, Steinbeck came to be the conscience of America. He witnessed and recorded with clarity much of the political and social upheaval of the 20th century: The Great Depression, World War II, the Cold War, and Vietnam. Yet hi...