"Renters! This was news! Not to be contract beet-workers living in Shag Town during the winter, moving each spring to some farmer’s unpainted two-room shack to live during the summer while they worked his beets. But renters!
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This is a seminal work of fiction based upon the sugar beet culture of the 1920s and 1930s, highlighting child labor and featuring the experiences of German-Russian (Volga German) farmers and laborers. Although extremely controversial when it was originally published in 1935, it was praised by then First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt and helped influence child labor legislation.