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The Dust Bowl: An Illustrated History
In this riveting chronicle, which accompanies a documentary to be broadcast on PBS in the fall, Dayton Duncan and Ken Burns capture the profound drama of the American Dust Bowl of the 1930s. Terrifying photographs of mile-high dust storms, along with firsthand accounts by more than two dozen eyewitnesses, bring to life this heart-wrenching catastrophe, when a combination of drought, wind, and poor farming practices turned millions of acres of the Great Plains into a wasteland, killing crops and livestock, threatening the lives of small children, burying homesteaders' hopes under huge dunes of dirt. Burns and Duncan collected more than 300 mesmerizing photographs, some never before published, scoured private letters, government reports, and newspaper articles, and conducted in-depth interviews to produce a document that may likely be the last recorded testimony of the generation who lived through this defining decade.
232 pages, Hardcover
First published October 3, 2012
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August 23, 2016
“We ate so poorly that the hobos wouldn’t come to our house.”
“There is a strange new population of 250,000 in California, and this number grows at the appalling rate of something like 100 a day.”
Two years ago, almost the same time of year, I read Timothy Egan’s “The Worst Hard Time: The Untold Story of Those Who Survived the Great American Dustbowl.” Timothy Egan, in fact, is quoted frequently throughout the pages, real or electronic, of Ken Burns “The Dust Bowl.” That book stayed with me in a way that never would have with a paragraph in a US History book, at some distant point in my past. In truth, my only recollection of a “new” thing I learned in US History was that on the page that listed maybe 4 of the greatest inventors, inventions was Captain Kellogg, for inventing the cornflake.
I alternated, when reading this between my kindle and my iPad, although I should have bought a hard copy to keep out for the photographs, alone.
Three months ago, I read Rae Meadows “I Will Send Rain” which added yet another element to this book. While both Egan’s and Burns’ books are filled with real stories of real people, those people are telling their story, a paragraph here, a paragraph there. Rae Meadows story tells a day-in-day-out story of a life, lives lived from before the beginning to the end. So that family, in a sense, read along with me over my shoulder.
As I was reading this I was recalling the story of The Bell family, and Egan’s stories he gathered along with those in Burns’ stories. And there is a commonality to these stories, and yet they are each so individual. We all think and feel on a common level to some degree, and there’s the thoughts and feelings that maybe we can’t share, don’t want to share. So, I recognize that despite the commonality, these are so individually felt, seen, remembered.
And, it’s heartbreaking.
And the photos, breathtaking in the awesome fierceness of Nature, lovely in the spirit of the people enduring, and wonder. I am in awe.
In Burns’ “The Dust Bowl” Caroline Henderson spoke about the consumption of water in the Ogallala Aquifer, the construction of which began around the end of the Dust Bowl: “Here again we come up against the hard fact that every material resource comes to an end unless constantly replenished.”
We know this is our history, and yet… there’s that old saying about history repeating itself. Only now we can add in Global Warming as an additional factor, and things like the rapidly depleting Ogallala Aquifer. Twenty years of water left under portions of eight states. What do we think will happen when it’s gone?
“The Dust Bowl belongs on the list of the top three, four, five environmental catastrophes in world history. But those took place over hundreds and even thousands of years of deforestation. We created a world-class environmental disaster in a matter of forty or fifty years.”
Highly recommended.
“There is a strange new population of 250,000 in California, and this number grows at the appalling rate of something like 100 a day.”
Two years ago, almost the same time of year, I read Timothy Egan’s “The Worst Hard Time: The Untold Story of Those Who Survived the Great American Dustbowl.” Timothy Egan, in fact, is quoted frequently throughout the pages, real or electronic, of Ken Burns “The Dust Bowl.” That book stayed with me in a way that never would have with a paragraph in a US History book, at some distant point in my past. In truth, my only recollection of a “new” thing I learned in US History was that on the page that listed maybe 4 of the greatest inventors, inventions was Captain Kellogg, for inventing the cornflake.
I alternated, when reading this between my kindle and my iPad, although I should have bought a hard copy to keep out for the photographs, alone.
Three months ago, I read Rae Meadows “I Will Send Rain” which added yet another element to this book. While both Egan’s and Burns’ books are filled with real stories of real people, those people are telling their story, a paragraph here, a paragraph there. Rae Meadows story tells a day-in-day-out story of a life, lives lived from before the beginning to the end. So that family, in a sense, read along with me over my shoulder.
As I was reading this I was recalling the story of The Bell family, and Egan’s stories he gathered along with those in Burns’ stories. And there is a commonality to these stories, and yet they are each so individual. We all think and feel on a common level to some degree, and there’s the thoughts and feelings that maybe we can’t share, don’t want to share. So, I recognize that despite the commonality, these are so individually felt, seen, remembered.
And, it’s heartbreaking.
And the photos, breathtaking in the awesome fierceness of Nature, lovely in the spirit of the people enduring, and wonder. I am in awe.
In Burns’ “The Dust Bowl” Caroline Henderson spoke about the consumption of water in the Ogallala Aquifer, the construction of which began around the end of the Dust Bowl: “Here again we come up against the hard fact that every material resource comes to an end unless constantly replenished.”
We know this is our history, and yet… there’s that old saying about history repeating itself. Only now we can add in Global Warming as an additional factor, and things like the rapidly depleting Ogallala Aquifer. Twenty years of water left under portions of eight states. What do we think will happen when it’s gone?
“The Dust Bowl belongs on the list of the top three, four, five environmental catastrophes in world history. But those took place over hundreds and even thousands of years of deforestation. We created a world-class environmental disaster in a matter of forty or fifty years.”
Highly recommended.
September 5, 2017
This is a great book on a fascinating, yet tragic time in American history!
Telling the story of the agricultural catastrophe known as the Dust Bowl in photographs and witness reports, it speaks directly to the reader, showing the various stages and facets of the worst man-made disaster the country had ever experienced up to date. It clarifies the reasons for the dust storms: how they developed, why they spread, and became worse with the years, and what were the consequences, both economic and social.
But most of all, it tells stories of individuals' lives. It tells the stories of people who had nothing but their dreams for the future to live for, and who saw those dreams turn into nightmares when the land they owned, the only asset they relied on for their existence, turned into heaps of sand and dust. It tells the story of those who died of the dust air they breathed over years, of those who packed and moved, westwards, like the famous fictional characters in Steinbeck's The Grapes of Wrath, only to face new hardships when they arrived in places where they were not welcome.
The book is based on a documentary (which I have not seen yet), but it is well worth reading on its own, and the photographs are haunting me still. I spent many hours looking into those vacant, hopeless faces, feeling deeply saddened and touched by their stories, and by the knowledge that part of the disaster could have been prevented if human hubris and greed had not gained the upper hand over long-term agricultural reasoning.
This is a well-made history book, offering high quality information and reading pleasure, as well as an interesting angle to the Great Depression era, focusing on rural tragedies rather than stock market crashes and soup kitchens and gangsters in the big cities.
Highly recommended!
Telling the story of the agricultural catastrophe known as the Dust Bowl in photographs and witness reports, it speaks directly to the reader, showing the various stages and facets of the worst man-made disaster the country had ever experienced up to date. It clarifies the reasons for the dust storms: how they developed, why they spread, and became worse with the years, and what were the consequences, both economic and social.
But most of all, it tells stories of individuals' lives. It tells the stories of people who had nothing but their dreams for the future to live for, and who saw those dreams turn into nightmares when the land they owned, the only asset they relied on for their existence, turned into heaps of sand and dust. It tells the story of those who died of the dust air they breathed over years, of those who packed and moved, westwards, like the famous fictional characters in Steinbeck's The Grapes of Wrath, only to face new hardships when they arrived in places where they were not welcome.
The book is based on a documentary (which I have not seen yet), but it is well worth reading on its own, and the photographs are haunting me still. I spent many hours looking into those vacant, hopeless faces, feeling deeply saddened and touched by their stories, and by the knowledge that part of the disaster could have been prevented if human hubris and greed had not gained the upper hand over long-term agricultural reasoning.
This is a well-made history book, offering high quality information and reading pleasure, as well as an interesting angle to the Great Depression era, focusing on rural tragedies rather than stock market crashes and soup kitchens and gangsters in the big cities.
Highly recommended!
November 22, 2015
ILLUMINATING AND ENLIGHTENING.
“Let me tell you how it was. I don’t care who describes it to you, nobody can tell it any worse than what it was. And no one exaggerates; there is no way for it to be exaggerated. It was that bad.” —Don Wells Cimarron County, Oklahoma (Kindle Locations 137-139)
How do you critique a book that reads exactly like the soundtrack of a Ken Burns documentary sounds? This companion book to the PBS documentary of the same name: The Dust Bowl, An Illustrated History, delivers much of the information and impact that you will also get from the video (available through Amazon Prime).
Oral histories rank among my favorite genres. Add illustrations and you’ve definitely won me for a fan.
Recommendation: Highest recommendations go to both the book and the video. For all ages—ecologically aware, or environmental neophyte.
“The Dust Bowl belongs on the list of the top three, four, five environmental catastrophes in world history. But those took place over hundreds and even thousands of years of deforestation. We created a world-class environmental disaster in a matter of forty or fifty years.” Kindle Locations 3667)
Chronicle Books LLC. Kindle Edition, 232 pages; 4,939 Kindle Locations.
“Let me tell you how it was. I don’t care who describes it to you, nobody can tell it any worse than what it was. And no one exaggerates; there is no way for it to be exaggerated. It was that bad.” —Don Wells Cimarron County, Oklahoma (Kindle Locations 137-139)
How do you critique a book that reads exactly like the soundtrack of a Ken Burns documentary sounds? This companion book to the PBS documentary of the same name: The Dust Bowl, An Illustrated History, delivers much of the information and impact that you will also get from the video (available through Amazon Prime).
Oral histories rank among my favorite genres. Add illustrations and you’ve definitely won me for a fan.
Recommendation: Highest recommendations go to both the book and the video. For all ages—ecologically aware, or environmental neophyte.
“The Dust Bowl belongs on the list of the top three, four, five environmental catastrophes in world history. But those took place over hundreds and even thousands of years of deforestation. We created a world-class environmental disaster in a matter of forty or fifty years.” Kindle Locations 3667)
Chronicle Books LLC. Kindle Edition, 232 pages; 4,939 Kindle Locations.
October 21, 2017
I'm sort of an amateur historian when it comes to disasters in America in the 1900s, be it man-made or natural. I originally started down this path after Hurricane Katrina hit the Gulf Coast in 2005 with the intention of trying to figure out when and why Americans moved from a self-sufficient, get-going-again attitude to a sit-back and wait for a government handout when it came to these disasters. (I think this would be an outstanding topic for a doctoral thesis.)
At any rate, the Dust Bowl, moreso than most others, is a fascinating topic to me, partly because I live in Oklahoma, but mostly because the people that lived through it were of the mindset that believed in never giving up, no matter what circumstances they were facing: over 9 years of severe, extreme drought, losing millions of tons of topsoil, and millions of dollars in crops. Over 75% of the farmers and their families stayed in the broad area, eking out a meager existence and expecting it to get better "next year".
I preach and minister at an assisted living center every Sunday in Southern OKC, and many of the residents are old enough to remember living through that time. I could sit and listen to them tell their stories for hours about those black clouds of dust rolling in, covering and smothering everything, and the actions that were taken to recover.
The book is an excellent chronological account of this man-made disaster, both from the survivors and from the local, state and federal government responses.
I highly recommend this book.
At any rate, the Dust Bowl, moreso than most others, is a fascinating topic to me, partly because I live in Oklahoma, but mostly because the people that lived through it were of the mindset that believed in never giving up, no matter what circumstances they were facing: over 9 years of severe, extreme drought, losing millions of tons of topsoil, and millions of dollars in crops. Over 75% of the farmers and their families stayed in the broad area, eking out a meager existence and expecting it to get better "next year".
I preach and minister at an assisted living center every Sunday in Southern OKC, and many of the residents are old enough to remember living through that time. I could sit and listen to them tell their stories for hours about those black clouds of dust rolling in, covering and smothering everything, and the actions that were taken to recover.
The book is an excellent chronological account of this man-made disaster, both from the survivors and from the local, state and federal government responses.
I highly recommend this book.
May 16, 2018
Living in southern Colorado, and spending a lot of time around Kansas, Oklahoma, and Texas, I had heard of the Dust Bowl, and driven through towns where time seemed to have stopped c. 1935, but I really didn't know much about what happened, or why.
I have not seen the documentary, but I certainly recommend the book. It does not go into great detail regarding the science of what happened, though it does give a brief summary and clues are picked up throughout the reading. However, it is a highly personal record in that the stories are told by children (now aged adults) who grew up during the Dust Bowl era, and witnessed and often participated in their familes' struggle to survive an environmental catastrophe partly of man's own making. Human greed and ignorance combined with a lengthy drought and the Great Depression to create some of the most miserable circumstances any American has probably ever experienced.
The stories do not shy away from the bleakness of the soul mirrored by that of the destroyed landscape, and yet the reader emerges inspired by a profound sense of hope in learning about those who were driven by their own stubbornness, character, and work ethic to at least keep their families fed, if they were unable to even feed their own livestock. Oddly, some people didn't learn and the disaster could easily have been repeated in the 50's if not for the fact that drought was less severe while some people did indeed learn the lesson and farm more responsibly.
The book also raises the question of government assistance/interference: FDR acted through the New Deal to help address some of this disaster. Not all his ideas were good (planting millions of trees to keep the dust from blowing west?). But some desperately needed assistance did arrive, and while not all were able or willing to receive such help; there were nevertheless some who did. A government-supported scientific study contributed to better farming practices that many learned from and the disaster was not repeated. The lie is given to the idea that the government should never interfere in the lives of its people, but at the same time the book acknowledges that in some instances where the government stepped in, it never stepped out either.
I have not seen the documentary, but I certainly recommend the book. It does not go into great detail regarding the science of what happened, though it does give a brief summary and clues are picked up throughout the reading. However, it is a highly personal record in that the stories are told by children (now aged adults) who grew up during the Dust Bowl era, and witnessed and often participated in their familes' struggle to survive an environmental catastrophe partly of man's own making. Human greed and ignorance combined with a lengthy drought and the Great Depression to create some of the most miserable circumstances any American has probably ever experienced.
The stories do not shy away from the bleakness of the soul mirrored by that of the destroyed landscape, and yet the reader emerges inspired by a profound sense of hope in learning about those who were driven by their own stubbornness, character, and work ethic to at least keep their families fed, if they were unable to even feed their own livestock. Oddly, some people didn't learn and the disaster could easily have been repeated in the 50's if not for the fact that drought was less severe while some people did indeed learn the lesson and farm more responsibly.
The book also raises the question of government assistance/interference: FDR acted through the New Deal to help address some of this disaster. Not all his ideas were good (planting millions of trees to keep the dust from blowing west?). But some desperately needed assistance did arrive, and while not all were able or willing to receive such help; there were nevertheless some who did. A government-supported scientific study contributed to better farming practices that many learned from and the disaster was not repeated. The lie is given to the idea that the government should never interfere in the lives of its people, but at the same time the book acknowledges that in some instances where the government stepped in, it never stepped out either.
March 8, 2021
This was a tough one to get through. Not because it was dull but because it was so hard to read of the devastation and heartbreak and the knowing we never seem to learn from our past.
“We want it now—and if it makes money now it’s a good idea. But if the things we’re doing are going to mess up the future, it wasn’t a good idea. Don’t deal in the moment. Take the long-term look at things. It’s important that we do the right thing by the soil and the climate.”
“History,” he added, “is of value only if you learn from it.”
“We want it now—and if it makes money now it’s a good idea. But if the things we’re doing are going to mess up the future, it wasn’t a good idea. Don’t deal in the moment. Take the long-term look at things. It’s important that we do the right thing by the soil and the climate.”
“History,” he added, “is of value only if you learn from it.”
March 5, 2013
This book really brought life to those who endured the dust bowl era. It personalized the experience. I have a new found respect for the Great Plains, the people who live there, and the fragility of our eco-system. I enjoyed the style the book was written in, and the illustrastions were fantastic. I recommend this to anyone interested in learning about an important piece of US history.
October 22, 2018
Terrifying illustrations, poignant oral histories, and informative text brought the Dust Bowl era to life.
June 27, 2017
I remember the stories my mom and dad would share when the clouds of darkness came rumbling across the plains. Mom grew up in Davis, Ok and dad was in Fredrick, Ok.
This story conveys everything this told me. “It didn’t matter what you did or how hard you tried, the dust come pouring in everywhere.” Nadena Dawson
Could this disaster have been prevented? The obvious answer today is yes. No one knew about crop rotation back then. They planted and planted and kept on planting. Wheat had taken the lead over cotton and was the cash crop of the day. I believe the most damage came from those who didn’t live on the land but leased it and hired others to work it. Imagine over eleven million acres being tilled and cultivated for one crop-wheat. No one thought it would end. Prices would never fall and everyone would get rich. Sound familiar?
That aside, the people that stayed and fought it out to the bitter end would become the backbone of this great country. They endured, not only the dustbowl, but also the depression. I call that a double whammy.
The Coup de grace came on Sunday, April 14, 1935. For once the skies were clear. Not a sign of a brewing tempest. Families came outside to breathe the clean air. Others decided to have picnics. Some went out to inspect crops and livestock. Others completed a good airing out the house to remove the smell and taste of the dust that had so dominated their prior months. One family chose the day to bury family members. They hoped the worst was over.
What came next could be compared to the hurricane in 1900 that devastated Galveston Island. A storm, two hundred miles wide, moving a sixty miles an hour crashed into New Mexico, Kansas, Texas and Oklahoma. Four to six hours of blackness. Day turned to night. Nowhere to hide. Many they were convinced it was the end of the world.
The Palm Sunday storm was the last straw for some families. For others, it was another day to start digging out and recovering.
Three forces allowed the country to survive and eventually turn the tide. The WPA organization put people to work. What a novel idea. Today, people want a hand out. Back then they wanted to work to live and hopefully dig themselves out and start again. The second was Henry Finnell. A soil conservationist who had an idea on how to reclaim the blowing sands. And thirdly, the most precious commodity of all‒RAIN!
The lessons learned allowed the Midwest, South and Southwest states to plant responsibly and prepare to feed a country that would shorty be involved in the greatest conflict of the twentieth century.
The photographs were an excellent addition to the work.
Five Stars
This story conveys everything this told me. “It didn’t matter what you did or how hard you tried, the dust come pouring in everywhere.” Nadena Dawson
Could this disaster have been prevented? The obvious answer today is yes. No one knew about crop rotation back then. They planted and planted and kept on planting. Wheat had taken the lead over cotton and was the cash crop of the day. I believe the most damage came from those who didn’t live on the land but leased it and hired others to work it. Imagine over eleven million acres being tilled and cultivated for one crop-wheat. No one thought it would end. Prices would never fall and everyone would get rich. Sound familiar?
That aside, the people that stayed and fought it out to the bitter end would become the backbone of this great country. They endured, not only the dustbowl, but also the depression. I call that a double whammy.
The Coup de grace came on Sunday, April 14, 1935. For once the skies were clear. Not a sign of a brewing tempest. Families came outside to breathe the clean air. Others decided to have picnics. Some went out to inspect crops and livestock. Others completed a good airing out the house to remove the smell and taste of the dust that had so dominated their prior months. One family chose the day to bury family members. They hoped the worst was over.
What came next could be compared to the hurricane in 1900 that devastated Galveston Island. A storm, two hundred miles wide, moving a sixty miles an hour crashed into New Mexico, Kansas, Texas and Oklahoma. Four to six hours of blackness. Day turned to night. Nowhere to hide. Many they were convinced it was the end of the world.
The Palm Sunday storm was the last straw for some families. For others, it was another day to start digging out and recovering.
Three forces allowed the country to survive and eventually turn the tide. The WPA organization put people to work. What a novel idea. Today, people want a hand out. Back then they wanted to work to live and hopefully dig themselves out and start again. The second was Henry Finnell. A soil conservationist who had an idea on how to reclaim the blowing sands. And thirdly, the most precious commodity of all‒RAIN!
The lessons learned allowed the Midwest, South and Southwest states to plant responsibly and prepare to feed a country that would shorty be involved in the greatest conflict of the twentieth century.
The photographs were an excellent addition to the work.
Five Stars
August 18, 2022
Cool! Excited to read the worst hard time next and maybe find this documentary online too.
People dug up the native grass with deep roots keeping dirt in place to plant wheat. Wheat prices were great during the war so people plowed more acres. Wheat prices dropped with oversupply so people plowed more acres to make up for it.
In the end, the efforts led by FDR and a soil scientist helped reverse the disaster with environmentally sound farming strategy. Felt a little sad because I don’t think the politics of today would let this happen.. it was already tough back then.
Terrible and interesting to read about the poor rabbit killing events. Feeling resentment for innocent creatures for reacting the only way they could to the destruction humans caused.
I give this 4 stars because I found it difficult to read with the switching of the “characters” and such. Took a while to get through 277 pages on my ebook. Highlighted lots of interesting passages though.
People dug up the native grass with deep roots keeping dirt in place to plant wheat. Wheat prices were great during the war so people plowed more acres. Wheat prices dropped with oversupply so people plowed more acres to make up for it.
In the end, the efforts led by FDR and a soil scientist helped reverse the disaster with environmentally sound farming strategy. Felt a little sad because I don’t think the politics of today would let this happen.. it was already tough back then.
Terrible and interesting to read about the poor rabbit killing events. Feeling resentment for innocent creatures for reacting the only way they could to the destruction humans caused.
I give this 4 stars because I found it difficult to read with the switching of the “characters” and such. Took a while to get through 277 pages on my ebook. Highlighted lots of interesting passages though.
December 28, 2012
I recorded on DVR the multi-evening documentary, and watched several of them, but saw this book in the library and decided to read it alongside. I thought the book did just as wonderful of a job as the documentary in describing personal stories of this economic/climatic/social disaster.
Pictures were beautiful, in a haunting, ugly-story telling way.
My grandma, her family were farmers, didn't have such horrifyingly destitute stories of this time - but she traveled to California for a few years to pick fruit before returning to Oklahoma. Since I no longer have my grandma here with me, these stories felt very personal to visualizing the lifestyle of the times. Highly recommend.
Pictures were beautiful, in a haunting, ugly-story telling way.
My grandma, her family were farmers, didn't have such horrifyingly destitute stories of this time - but she traveled to California for a few years to pick fruit before returning to Oklahoma. Since I no longer have my grandma here with me, these stories felt very personal to visualizing the lifestyle of the times. Highly recommend.
September 4, 2014
This is an excellent companion book to the Ken Burns PBS series. It’s the simultaneous story of the extreme hardship in the 1930’s with the story of man’s consuming of resources which caused the extreme hardship. A sentence from one of the admirable people in the book, Caroline Henderson, tells it all when she talks about the consumption of water in the Ogallala aquifer which started at the end of the Dust Bowl: “Here again we come up against the hard fact that every material resource comes to an end unless constantly replenished.”
May 12, 2013
I thought I knew a little about the Dust Bowl, but I learned so much more than I could have imagined by reading this book. The pictures are amazing yet it's still so hard to wrap my brain around such a time ever existing. It's a very humbling thing to read something like this and see the pictures that capture the raw emotion of those that lived through it, that makes you really look at your life and everything you have and appreciate it that much more.
March 4, 2013
Although I didn't see the Ken Burns film by the same name, I found the book to be a powerful representation of this period in history. Both the eyewitness accounts and the dramatic photos made the devastation of the Dust Bowl come alive.
October 31, 2023
It can happen again...
most emphatically it can HAPPEN AGAIN.
(Watched the documentary did not read the book.)
Elements of a perfect storm swirling around the panhandle territory created a dust bowl of epic proportions. Among those elements foolish people. Anyone who has witnessed the real estate bubble can see similar elements here which were left in a bowl to brew and bubble over.
Basically men farmed in a land previously only known for it Buffalo Grass and droughts. Real estates, banks "experts" told people that the climate had changed (as it had entered a wet season) and it was forever going to stay that way.
Crops were bountiful so more land was stripped away and more crops planted. War drove the wheat up to $2 a barrel. (Who charges more for food in a war???) Govt told yhem to plant more. More land was dug up , now in a completely different method of farming which made the land more susceptible to erosion, in excess. Wheat prices after the war dropped to a $1. So more land was dug up and more wheat planted. Prices drop. More wheat planted. Prices drop to a desperately low price. More land torn away and less Buffalo Grass (which retains moisture in the soil) in the Earth.
Eventually it left the land desolate. So desolate that you really need to see pics. Because the accurate words 'It was bad. Really, really bad' do not convey the horrors when we live in a time when people who make millions of dollars complain about persecution , victimization, and racism enjoy fame and clothing made from near slave labour. As I watched the storms roll toward a town I kept flashing back to the radiation storms on the show The 100.
They continued to plant wheat and try to farm it year after year after year. As livestock choked to death and starved. While their children choked to death and starved. While cattle and children disappeared in storms found tangled in barbed wire and tumbleweed.
Nothing convinced these people that the drought was back (as it always had been) not even hoardes of jack rabbits descended on the land. Their answer was to beat to death as many as the could. The survivors who had been children at the time gave bone chilling stories and recalled the screams (yes --SCREAMS) the rabbits made. Who had been blown there by winds the people had created and were starving. I am just going to stop there. (RIP every living thing who did not deserve the wasteland that waa created and destroyed every living thimg.)
They held out hope and hope and denial. These winds were blown across America. America had a drought that affected 40 of 48 states AND the stock market crash of '29.
After this disaster eventually it began to rain again.
Eventually people began to plant wheat crops again. Again is really an absurd word because they never stopped. One person quipped that "The only difference between their land and the Sahara Desert is that a bunch of damned fools aren't trying to farm the Sahara.
Then another war and great harvest had come. Back to planting. Some changes were made in the interim. One was implementation of irrigation.
The reason crops were and are successful is because of a hidden reservoir beneath the ground left over from THE ICE AGE. As of 2012 we are told that all that's left is 20 years. How many years are left now?
Water was now not a problem so they grew crops to feed the livestock.
One old man said that someday the water will be gone. That what they thought was a good idea (irrigation system under the ground) was the beginning of a bad idea.
"Some day the water will be gone for somebody. I keep thinking I wonder if they will say, ' You mean you used our DRINKING water for feed for pigs?'.". Or something very close to that.
:(
most emphatically it can HAPPEN AGAIN.
(Watched the documentary did not read the book.)
Elements of a perfect storm swirling around the panhandle territory created a dust bowl of epic proportions. Among those elements foolish people. Anyone who has witnessed the real estate bubble can see similar elements here which were left in a bowl to brew and bubble over.
Basically men farmed in a land previously only known for it Buffalo Grass and droughts. Real estates, banks "experts" told people that the climate had changed (as it had entered a wet season) and it was forever going to stay that way.
Crops were bountiful so more land was stripped away and more crops planted. War drove the wheat up to $2 a barrel. (Who charges more for food in a war???) Govt told yhem to plant more. More land was dug up , now in a completely different method of farming which made the land more susceptible to erosion, in excess. Wheat prices after the war dropped to a $1. So more land was dug up and more wheat planted. Prices drop. More wheat planted. Prices drop to a desperately low price. More land torn away and less Buffalo Grass (which retains moisture in the soil) in the Earth.
Eventually it left the land desolate. So desolate that you really need to see pics. Because the accurate words 'It was bad. Really, really bad' do not convey the horrors when we live in a time when people who make millions of dollars complain about persecution , victimization, and racism enjoy fame and clothing made from near slave labour. As I watched the storms roll toward a town I kept flashing back to the radiation storms on the show The 100.
They continued to plant wheat and try to farm it year after year after year. As livestock choked to death and starved. While their children choked to death and starved. While cattle and children disappeared in storms found tangled in barbed wire and tumbleweed.
Nothing convinced these people that the drought was back (as it always had been) not even hoardes of jack rabbits descended on the land. Their answer was to beat to death as many as the could. The survivors who had been children at the time gave bone chilling stories and recalled the screams (yes --SCREAMS) the rabbits made. Who had been blown there by winds the people had created and were starving. I am just going to stop there. (RIP every living thing who did not deserve the wasteland that waa created and destroyed every living thimg.)
They held out hope and hope and denial. These winds were blown across America. America had a drought that affected 40 of 48 states AND the stock market crash of '29.
After this disaster eventually it began to rain again.
Eventually people began to plant wheat crops again. Again is really an absurd word because they never stopped. One person quipped that "The only difference between their land and the Sahara Desert is that a bunch of damned fools aren't trying to farm the Sahara.
Then another war and great harvest had come. Back to planting. Some changes were made in the interim. One was implementation of irrigation.
The reason crops were and are successful is because of a hidden reservoir beneath the ground left over from THE ICE AGE. As of 2012 we are told that all that's left is 20 years. How many years are left now?
Water was now not a problem so they grew crops to feed the livestock.
One old man said that someday the water will be gone. That what they thought was a good idea (irrigation system under the ground) was the beginning of a bad idea.
"Some day the water will be gone for somebody. I keep thinking I wonder if they will say, ' You mean you used our DRINKING water for feed for pigs?'.". Or something very close to that.
:(
March 15, 2023
This is a companion book for Ken Burns' documentary on The Dust Bowl, and it's a great overview of the human experience during the "Dirty Thirties." Burns and Duncan have documented beautifully the stories of families affected by drought, bad government policies, speculators, poor farming practices, and a terrible economy. There is less thorough treatment of the surrounding issues: government-created incentives to settle and farm the land, speculators, pros/cons of New Deal policies, factors leading to resolution of the crisis, current status / recovery. As an overview book (and the companion to my daughter's term paper), it's a great book. Very readable, very interesting, great photos. They touch on all the issues but the perspective provided is through the eyes of the Dust Bowl's "victims," so less of a global perspective than might be helpful. For ex, the book mentions several of the artists hired by the FSA (Dorothea Lange, Pare Lorentz, Sanora Babb) and other period artists (Woody Guthrie, Alexander Hogue) and provides info that many Dust Bowl residents didn't like the way they were portrayed and found the works offensive, but there isn't really a deeper exploration of individual stories - eg, the difference between the story told about Lange's Migrant Mother vs the truth; the background of Pare Lorentz's frank propaganda film - The Plow that Broke the Plains. Still, it is not a difficult read, and chapters are both brief and engaging. In spite of the fact that it looks like a coffee-table book, it's actually a book one can read and learn from, and reading the stories of the families affected - heartbreaking. And inspiring.
With regard to political bias: there is an enormous amount of bias in almost every account of The Dust Bowl. I could list my assessment of the etiologies, but not necessary here. Burns & Duncan did a reasonable job displaying the various perspectives although some bias sneaks in (Burns is an unabashed liberal, and this is evidenced in some of the comments about the role of the government and environment). Still, I think there is a fairly even handed portrayal of all perspectives, with only a few places where the language used is clearly intended to sway the reader.
All in - this was worth it. Enjoy!
With regard to political bias: there is an enormous amount of bias in almost every account of The Dust Bowl. I could list my assessment of the etiologies, but not necessary here. Burns & Duncan did a reasonable job displaying the various perspectives although some bias sneaks in (Burns is an unabashed liberal, and this is evidenced in some of the comments about the role of the government and environment). Still, I think there is a fairly even handed portrayal of all perspectives, with only a few places where the language used is clearly intended to sway the reader.
All in - this was worth it. Enjoy!
July 31, 2022
This illustrated history book covers the period of the dirty thirties, which is the nickname of 1930s as much of the U.S. nation suffered from long periods of dust bowls. The story is more intimate in its presentation because it reveals the lives of many survivors who had endured the dry period during the Great Depression. Many of these individual stories are indirectly connected, as each occurred around the same time, yet each family had a different response to when the dust storms destroyed their land. Many of them showed how gradually the promise of the American Dream was lost to a time when everyone in the Plains believed the apocalypse arrived. Each individual remembered the struggles of keeping away from the dust, the hardships of living without water and the mental toll the caused many families to breakup in the process. At the same time, the authors covered the government's attempts to fix the issues by giving out programs to the poor and policies to rejuvenate the land back into a natural zone. All of which, shows in the epilogue how many of the folks believed that one must adapt to nature, not the other way around, where both land and water conservation is greatly significant ensuring sustainable living for those in the Plains. Though it can come overly detailed, due to covering an entire decade, it is a deep dive into what the era was like for many farmers.
May 23, 2021
Kristin Hannah’s newest novel, The Four Winds, piqued my curiosity around the 1930s Dust Bowl...I read Ken Burns’ The Dust Bowl: An Illustrated History and watched his accompanying documentary that originally aired on PBS in 2012...this was the “Worst Hard Time” as author Tim Egan put it...Burns chronicled The Dust Bowl and captured the childhood memories of 24 survivors living today....in many cases their shared memories were extraordinarily painful, all remarkably fresh and vivid three-quarters of later. Ken Burns’ documentary really does a superb job of capturing all elements of the book so watching the documentary relays all the history masterfully. Tim Egan’s The Worst Hard Time: The Untold Story of Those Who Survived the Great American Dust Bowl is another very good non-fiction account of The Dust Bowl.
May 10, 2017
A ecological man made disaster that affected people in Colorado, Kansas, Oklahoma, Nebraska, Texas and New Mexico. Due to overuse, the soil would no longer hold to grow items. Droughts lasted for years, and dust storms would be 60 miles per hour and put dust 10,000 feet into the air. Sensing hope in California, there was a mass exodus to seek out work and homes. But, hope was eluding for them. A very informative book with detailing pictures.
February 28, 2021
A wonderful read about a time in our country’s history that I didn’t know very much about. Caroline Henderson’s bravery and love of nature were inspiring. The resilience and hard work were unbelievable. I really appreciate understanding how the land was “injured” and why the climate reacted. The visuals in the book and in the writing will stay with me.
January 22, 2018
This is one of the most informative book I have read on the Dust Bowl. I had no idea the extent of pain and suffering these people went through. Our school's history book had about 2 paragraphs covering 10 years. What a shame!
July 3, 2018
Companion piece to the PBS documentary of the same name, so if you have seen that you have seen most everything in this book. Still interesting, though, in its commentary on the hubris of 'productivity' and the necessity of seeing that we are interdependent.
December 29, 2020
Nol,
No,
This was a good but I had hated 0 for katie and her husband was very good at that time when she had been diagnosed in her childhood home in 0 but was born in new Jersey Jersey on 7PM in the wonder that
No,
This was a good but I had hated 0 for katie and her husband was very good at that time when she had been diagnosed in her childhood home in 0 but was born in new Jersey Jersey on 7PM in the wonder that
October 17, 2021
A long held memory
I grew up in North Dakota in the 30’s. The graphic pictures and the stories brought back vivid memories. It was not as bad as the Dust Bowl, but still very real. I doubt if young people believe these things happened. The pictures are proof.
I grew up in North Dakota in the 30’s. The graphic pictures and the stories brought back vivid memories. It was not as bad as the Dust Bowl, but still very real. I doubt if young people believe these things happened. The pictures are proof.
February 25, 2022
Read on Kindle so not nearly as satisfactory experience as the physical book would have been. Still, as are all of Ken Burns’ projects, this one covers the history from the people on the ground and is supported by photos, also hard to view in the ebook edition.
September 19, 2022
This was interesting. I really liked the eye witness spin on this. It's not just someone telling you the history, it's someone who loved through this in parts of the book. The pictures were also really cool to see. This was a sad time in history though.
January 5, 2023
Solid companion piece to an obviously excellent doc. Tapping its collection of period photos in the body of each chapter was great. Hitting a shorter work (or the doc itself) every now and again is keeping me from getting to The Worst Hard Time though…it’s been on my TBR for an age.
March 14, 2023
Great Pics and Text
Well worth a look even if you’ve viewed the documentary. The powerful images enhance the well thought out text. A great warning to those who want to sweep environmental problems under the rug.
Well worth a look even if you’ve viewed the documentary. The powerful images enhance the well thought out text. A great warning to those who want to sweep environmental problems under the rug.
November 20, 2023
It was an interesting read
The pictures made this book worthwhile. It was very interesting. I'm terrified that none of the movers and shakers in this country realize that this can happen all over again.
The pictures made this book worthwhile. It was very interesting. I'm terrified that none of the movers and shakers in this country realize that this can happen all over again.
March 2, 2024
I was inspired to read more historical events on the dust bowl after reading (The Four Winds). The illustrations and further descriptions on the true events was very fascinating to learn more about.
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