The Dust Bowl Summary

The Dust Bowl Summary
The dust bowl was a nitty gritty nightmare that lasted about a decade. It took place in the drought–stricken region of the United States, midst the Great
Depression era. This period in time is generally considered as one of the hardest times in history. The dust bowl storms were often so atrocious that
people referred to them as "Black Blizzards." Not only did the dust bowl make things tough for farmers, when the dust bowl swept up around 100
million acres of topsoil, but also for the rest of middle, United States.1
During the dust bowl and great depression, around 13–15 million Americans were left unemployed.2 Unfortunately, the unusual became the usual. But,
what exactly does the "usual" mean for American citizens? The real question is...show more content...
He found information from local newspapers, museums, and libraries. Not only did Paul Bonnifield do research, he also interviewed people from the
southern plains. With that, he was able to write a book called, The Dust Bowl: Men, Dirt, and Depression.4 Bonnifield tells his readers:
Ultimately the story of the heartland of the dust bowl is the chronicle of hardworking, stouthearted folks who withstood the onslaught of nature at its
worst, while living through a devastating depression and facing government idealism.5
The Dust Bowl: Men, Dirt, and Depression reveals the economical battle throughout the Great Depression, as well as the dust bowl. Real people
struggled to subsist the times of poverty and extensive horticultural difficulties. Bonnifield states that agricultural hardship during the dust bowl
expedited due to several dry years. Farmers started a new method of farming known as dry land farming which led to the major destruction of the Great
Plains' prairie grass. 6Ranchers also played a big part in the dust bowl because of overgrazing. Eventually, the land was stripped down to dirt.7
Bonnifield uses these reasoning's as some of the main principles that led to severe "Black
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Cause And Effects Of The Dust Bowl
Dust bowl
In the late 1920s, the great grassland planes were filled with agriculture, industries, and cotton plows. The soil that was found in the Southern Plains
was rich and full of life but in the early 1930s, everything changed because of poor agriculture practices, droughts and the increasing dust storms that
blocked the sunlight. The dust bowl that lasted about a decade it started in early 1930's it had a great effect on the Southern Plains as well the
Northern Plains. The great dust bowl still does have affected on today's the grasslands in mid–American the grassland are now desert and tend to have a
lot of droughts. The following states were affected by the dust storms in early 1930's Denver, Colorado, Oklahoma, New Mexico, Texas and Kansas
the Dust Bowl affected the Northern Plains soon after the Southern Plains topsoil was destroyed droughts blew out dust into nearby States covering
Sun for days. Agriculture in the states declined dramatically the Dust Bowl did not help the Great Depression the Dust Bowl took away agriculture the
products food for half the country at the time, jobs and education were affected it didn't only affect the nation but had affected world worldwide on
Industries and trades. Besides the declining of Agriculture, breathing, eating and taking a walk we're no longer simple the dust would cover roads,
farms, and crops.
Farmers that performed poor agriculture practices where the cause or responsibility of the drought that caused the Dust

Write An Essay On The Dust Bowl
Imagine you lived during the time period where poor farming techniques were created, and dust was being deposited or dropped into your lungs,
forcing you to walk slowly down the steps of death. The phenomenon, the Dust Bowl, took place in the United States during the years around the
1930's. It was an event that occurred in the United States, where the area it was taken place did not have moist soil, healthy crops, and a considerable
amount of water. During this time, the soil was poor, meaning there was a small amount of nutrients in it. From this, it caused the seeds being planted
to wilt, and die.. Compost helps the nutrients and moisture to stay within the soil, in order to allow the plants to not wither from being over watered or
the lack of this liquid.
Plants, also...show more content...
For example, these nutrients come from water, a colorless, transparent, odorless, tasteless liquid that forms the seas, lakes, rivers, and rain, and most
importantly, good soil, which are sediments broken down by weathering. Compost would be considered as one of the most nutritional value to the
plants, even though it may not be necessary to use for planting. Despite this, it helps increase the nutritional value given to the plants. According to the
resource, https://bonnieplants.com/library/what–is–compost/, it states, "The organic matter in compost sponges up the fertilizer nutrients until they are
needed by plants. Compost also provides many nutrients that plants need in small amounts, such as boron." Boron is a micronutrient for plants that
benefits and are the causes of their development and growth by strengthening and forming the stem cells. The stem cells are cells of a multicellular
organism that is capable of giving rise to more cells of the same type. In addition, there is

Dust Bowl Bt Donald Worster Essay
Dust Bowl:
Donald Worster
The 1930s are a decade marked by devastation; the nation was in an economic crisis, millions of people were going hungry, and jobless. America was
going through some dark times. But if you were living in Texas, Oklahoma, Kansas (or any of those surrounding states) you had bigger things on your
mind than being denied the money in your bank account. From 1935–1939 Winds and dust storms had left a good portion of our country desolate;
however our author takes a slightly different, though no less valid, opinion on the matter. In his book Dust Bowl: The Southern Plains in the 1930s
Donald Worster blames mans inappropriate interference with nature that allowed these massive storms of dust that happen. "My...show more content...
He wasn't just referring to old farming practices; he meant how people use to appreciate the earth and all of the things she gave. He meant when
farming was a reputable job and when what came from the earth was sacrosanct.
Drought had caused the soil to become dry and loose by early 1930. This occurs mostly because the area most hurt by the Dust Bowl had once been
grassland, in the early 1900s they had been converted into wheat lands because that was more lucrative. "...and the dust storms of the following decade
revealed, a self–destructive culture, cutting away the ground from under people's feet." (Worster pg 44).
In decades previous to that there had been a technology boom as far as farm equipment went. "...some observer blame the dust storm of the 1930s of
the misuse of this single implement." (Worster pg 91). Western farmers had used plows to kill the grass. Greed and this disruption of nature is what
Worster sees as the primary cause of the Dust Bowl. We used the earth as a form of capitalism; worked it to make money for us and gave nothing
back. (Similar to what caused the Great Depression.) He felt that as a nation we had deceived ourselves so we would feel vindicated for our actions,
thereby alleviating any responsibility to fix what we broke.
The Great Depression was in an

What Caused The Dust Bowl? Essay
What Caused the Dust Bowl?
One of America's most beloved books is John Steinbeck's The Grapes of Wrath. The book portrays a family, the Joads, who leave Oklahoma and
move to California in search of a more prosperous life. Steinbeck's book garnered acclaim both from critics and from the American public. The story
struck a chord with the American people because Steinbeck truly captured the angst and heartbreak of those directly impacted by the Dust Bowl
disaster. To truly comprehend the havoc the Dust Bowl wreaked, one must first understand how and why the Dust Bowl took place and who it affected
the most. The Dust Bowl was the result of a conglomeration of weather, falling crop prices, and government policies.
The Dust Bowl, a tragic era...show more content...
For example, in February much of the United States had recorded frigid temperatures and North Dakota hit an all–time extreme record low of minus
sixty degrees (Hutchinson, 35) . In contrast to the high temperatures, in the summer of 1936 strong upper–atmosphere high pressure systems locked
over North America which caused very high temperatures. All but two states experienced protracted temperatures in excess of 100 degrees.
Seventy–five percent of those states experienced temperatures that exceeded 110. The high for Kansas in 1936 was in Alton which reached 121
degrees in July. Conditions were so severe that federal officials warned that America's agricultural belt was in real danger of being transformed into a
desert. The heat wave cost $1 billion in crop and livestock losses. On July 15th of 1936, the Chicago Tribune estimated that 1,000 people a day were
dying and continued at that pace for several days.
In addition to the extreme temperatures, lack of rain was also a major factor in the Dust Bowl. The 1934 drought was the most devastating in American
history. In 1934, twenty–four states suffered sufficiently from the drought. There was no significant amount of rain from 1930 to 1939. The drought
was so bad people started to believe they could produce rain. Tex Thorton, in Delhart Texas, believed that if he set off explosions on the ground it
would rattle the atmosphere and cause it to rain. He was paid three hundred dollars to set off explosions, but

Essay on The Dust Bowl
GKE Task 1
A. Significant environmental /geographical factors that contributed to the development or expansion of the United States:
1. The Dust Bowl
Farmers began to plow and plant wheat crops. When World War 1 began the massive wheat crops helped feed many Americans that in another part of
the country try where in the beginning of a depression that was caused by the war. The wheat crops also helped feed numerous nations overseas. A
drought that began in the beginning of the 1930's persisted and was leading things in a very negative direction. No matter the circumstances farmers
kept on farming hoping the rain would soon come back. In 1931 the rain just stopped and the farmers still kept trying to farm. Without adequate...show
more content...
B. One significant environmental or geographical factor that contributed to the development or diffusion on one human society from:
Egypt's geographic characteristics that affect the development of human society were the Nile River. The Nile River made the ability of a large
population in a desert region. Also, the Nile would flood bringing rich soil to the lower regions of the rivers course. The crops in this area did well
and the flooding helped set a steady schedule for planting and harvesting and because of this the societies remained stable and had extra time to
develop art and science in their culture. The people of Egypt also had access to some of the largest quantities of stone such as granite. This began the
development and building of pyramids instead of mud buildings. The Nile River played a huge role in the development of Egypt.
1. Cultural diffusion between Mesopotamia and Egypt.
The social and politically elite from Egypt sought exotic goods and items of symbolic prestigiousness from India (Mesopotamia). For example:
Mesopotamian cylinder seals and Afghan Lapis Lazuli which were found in early Egyptian tombs. Not only was there trades of items but there was
trades of ideas. Egyptians imitated the Lapis Lazuli in their Egyptian Faience (ceramic of glass). Due to the Lapis Lazuli being very rare and
expensive the Egyptian felt they could benefit from doing this. The Faience represents the first known

" The dust Bowl Odyssey" written by James West Davidson and Mark Lytle. Tells the readers of a story not too different from "Mirror with a
memory" also written by James West Davidson and Mark Lytle. The concept and story line portrayed in this book discusses struggles of many early
American citizens, the life as well as hardships that was endured, the poverty, worry and hopelessness that was lived. Interestingly enough I my self not
being born a citizen of the United States of America look at the booming business industries and the housing industries which gives a portrait of a
thriving economical system. But reading the "Dust Bowl Odyssey" allows me along with other readers to understand that although America is a
successful and thriving country it is not without its sacrifices. "The story begins with Dust" (pg _ Dust Bowl Odyssey). In May of 1934 winds
began to blow into States, from Montana, Oklahoma, Iowa, as far down as Atlanta and as far north as Boston. Wind Storms covered states with dust.
Not like smalls amounts of dust found in the corners or shelves of homes, but clouds of dust large and dark even blocking Sun light. Dust would reach
every where and into every nuke and...show more content...
Similarly the residents of the dust bowl along with victims of the dust storms leave their home towns and head to California but are faced with miss
treatment and abuse from the native residents of California. Migrant camps began to form as a result of no work and no where else to

The Importance Of The Dust Bowl
The misuse of various environmental resources contributed to one of the greatest droughts in history. The years of successful harvesting and good
times lead to the overuse of farmland, troublesome lives for all and ultimately the Dust Bowl.
For Dust Bowl residents, life was almost unbearable. The Dust Bowl was given its name after a huge dust storm in 1914 by Robert E. Geiger. The
name "Dust Bowl" is very fitting because of the multiple dust storms that blew through the Great Plains during the 1930s. This also shows that
everyone viewed the Great Plains as a dusty and treacherous place to live. In addition, "About 40 big storms swept through the Dust Bowl in 1935,
with dust often reducing visibility to less than a mile" (Lookingbill 1). This...show more content...
To keep the Great Plains residents healthy, "The Red Cross opened six emergency hospitals to deal with the crisis" (Brown 37). This shows that
the Dust Bowl crisis got so bad that organizations like the Red Cross enlisted to help the Dust Bowl residents get back on their feet and become
happy and healthy once again. To help with the situation, "The federal government developed programs to aid Dust Bowl residents" get back on
their feet. This reveals that everyone had to join in the help get the Great Plains get back to its former glory and ability to produce crops. This also
shows that the federal government was working to help prevent a disaster this big from occurring again. Finally "The long dry spell ended in the
autumn of 1939. Rain drenched the plains for the two days and nights" (Heinrichs 39). This is important because nature finally ran its course and
nourished the water–deprived soil. This shows that the long–awaited end to the Dust Bowl and drought had finally ended, bringing hope to not only
Dust Bowl residents but all of the United States. The Dust Bowl, an event that caused so much destruction to the Great Plains and the American
economy, was finally

The Dust Bowl
Rays of golden sunlight were piercing the blue sky. Today was a hot day. There had been no rain in the last month. A young child was playing in the
field while his father was harvesting the crops. The boy was playing among the newly harvested golden vegetables. There were a lot more vegetables
than he remembered from years past. The boy knew they were going to sell most of this harvest. Where are the other plants that he remembered? Why
was corn the only thing growing? Why is it in straight lines instead of winding around the property like it normally did? He pondered these questions
on the way to school. Today, unlike normal, his teacher let him out of school early. Though he thought nothing of it at the time the sky was turning
dark. It...show more content...
"Sometimes children were kept in the school house all night to make sure they wouldn't get lost walking home or be overcome by the dust" (Dale).
"Rural teachers talked about lighting lanterns in the middle of the day so children could see to recite their lessons" (Dale). There were many effects of
the Dust Bowl and life quickly became hard on all whom were affected.
"As a 'double whammy' of drought and depression deepened on the Great Plains, more and more farmers gave up or were forced off of their land"
(Winter). According to Bart Robinson, an eyewitness, "Many people thought it was a plague" (Robinson). The migrant workers started moving away.
"When pioneers headed west in the late 19th century, many couldn't resist the lure of the tall grassy land in the semiarid Midwestern and Southern
plains of the United States" ("Black Sunday"). Many people did travel to other states. Though "the exact scale of migrants is unknown but it's estimated
that up to 400,000 Southwesterns moved west during the 1930s and to 300,000 moved into California a decade earlier" (Sander). Dust Bowl refugees
found roots in California (Winter). "Sometimes they found work, but mostly they found heartbreak and anger" (Robinson). They had once "owned
profitable farms. Then they had nothin' but hunger and dirt and two cents a barrel" (Robinson). Some migrant workers had trouble finding houses
within their price range. "Many of the migrant workers lived in labor camps"

Dust Bowl Essay
The Dust Bowl was a treacherous storm, which occurred in the 1930's, that affected the midwestern people, for example the farmers, and which taught
us new technologies and methods of farming. As John Steinbeck wrote in his 1939 novel The Grapes of Wrath: "And then the dispossessed were
drawn west– from Kansas, Oklahoma, Texas, New Mexico; from Nevada and Arkansas, families, tribes, dusted out. Carloads, caravans, homeless and
hungry; twenty thousand and fifty thousand and a hundred thousand and two hundred thousand. They streamed over the mountains, hungry and
restless – restless as ants, scurrying to find work to do – to lift, to push, to pull, to pick, to cut – anything, any burden to bear, for food. The kids are
hungry. We got no place...show more content...
But to the credit of the residents of the Dust Bowl, they shouldered their task and carried on. The people of the region made it because they knew
how to take the everyday practical things, which had been used for years and adapt them to meet the crisis. Finding a way to make do or do
differently was a way of life for the pioneers who had come to the region only a short time earlier. When they arrived there were no houses, wells,
cars, telephones or fields. Times were hard when the land was settled, and the people knew how to live and grow in difficult periods. In 1934–1936 the
actual Dust Bowl happened. This was when the massive and deadly storms hit the prosper and growing Midwest Panhandle. In 1936, a more severe
storm spread out of the plains and across most of the nation. The drought years were followed with record breaking heavy rains, blizzards, tornadoes
and floods. In September 1930, it rained over five inches in a very short time in the Oklahoma Panhandle. The flooding in Oklahoma was
accompanied by a dirt storm, which damaged several small buildings and other farm structures. Later that year, the regions were hit again by a strong
dirt storm from the southwest until the winds gave way to a blizzard from the north.
After the blizzards in winter 1930–1931, the drought began. First the northern plains were hit by the dry spell, but by July the southern plains were in
the drought. It was not until late September that

The Dust Bowl
The Dust Bowl was a treacherous storm, which occurred in the years of the 1930's, which affected the Midwestern people, an example the farmers,
which taught us new technologies and methods of farming. John Steinbeck wrote in his novel from 1939 The Grapes of Wrath: "And then the
dispossessed were drawn west– from Kansas, Oklahoma, New Mexico, Texas; from Nevada and Arkansas, families, tribes, dusted out, Caravans,
carloads, and homeless. Totals of 20,000, 50,000, 100,000, and 200,000 people. They streamed over the mountains, hungry and restless. We got no
place to live. Like ants scurrying for work, food, and most of all for land." The early thirties opened with prosperity and growth. At the time the
Midwest was full of agricultural...show more content...
Although the dirt storms were fewer in 1934, it was the year, which brought the Dust Bowl national attention. In May, a severe storm blew dirt from
Oklahoma, Texas and Kansas as Far as New York City and Washington D.C. In spite of the terrific storm in May, the year 1934 was pleasant respite
from the blowing dirt and tornadoes of the previous year. But nature had another trick up her sleeve, the year was extremely hot with new records
being made and broken at regular intervals. Before the year had run its course, hundreds of people in Texas, Colorado, Oklahoma and Kansas had
died from the heat. In 1935, this storm was followed by another and another in rapid succession. A description of the storm of coming was made by a
farmer:" The storm caused a tremendous amount of damage and suffering. A giantdust storm engulfs Boise City. Tremendous winds rolled up to two
miles high, and stretched out a hundred miles with speeds faster than 50 miles per hour. The storms destroyed vast areas of the Great Plains farmland.
The methods of fighting the dust were as many, and varied as were the means of finding a way to get something to eat and wear. Every possible crack
was filled, sheets were placed over the windows and blankets were hung behind the doors. Often the places were so tightly plugged against all the dust
that the houses became extremely hot and stuffy. The clouds appeared on the horizons with a thunderous roar. Turbulent dust clouds rolled in

The Dust Bowl Essay
In what was one of the most fertile areas of the United States, one of the Nation's worst agricultural disasters occurred. No rain came so crops did not
grow, leaving the soil exposed to the high winds that hit the area in the 1930s. Stretching over a 150,000 square mile area and encompassing parts of
five states–these being Texas, Oklahoma, Kansas, Colorado, and New Mexico–the Dust Bowl was a time where over 100 million acres of topsoil were
stripped from fertile fields leaving nothing but barren lands and piles of dust everywhere (Ganzel). While things were done to alleviate the problem,
one must question whether or not anyone has learned from this disaster. If not, one must look into the possibility that the United States may be struck
...show more content...
With many farmers having such high yields, there was an abundance of crops so the prices fell and a farmer had to plant more in order to have
enough money to support their families. The Enlarged Homestead Act guaranteed 320 acres of land to farmers who were willing to take land that
were considered to be marginal and could not be irrigated well. They plowed up the virgin soil and planted acres and acres of golden wheat,
leaving the land vulnerable to the elements after the yearly harvest. The farmers also implemented the use of fossil fuel ran machinery that made it
easier to plow up hundreds of acres in a short period of time, which exposed even more soil than what would have been open to the elements had the
farming been done by an animal pulled plow. The massive influx of farmers because of that act caused major soil erosion which was made worse by
the Dust Bowl of the 1930s. From 1931–when the rains stopped–until 1939–when the drought finally ended, the people living there had to deal with
constant problems. Animals and humans were sickened by the dust getting into their lungs and many of them even died from dust pneumonia
(Surviving the Dust Bowl). In Amarillo, Texas during 1935, dust storms occurred for a total of 908 hours and from January to March that year the city
had zero visibility seven times (Worster). One woman said that being caught in the dust storm was comparable to having a shovelful of fine sand flung

Argumentative Essay On The Dust Bowl
Because of the Dust Bowl, many peoples' lives in the midwest were drastically changed, and California experienced a surge of refugees looking for
agricultural opportunities. Because of this, many families, just like the fictional character Merliah, were forced to take jobs that required hard labour
and not much pay. Merliah, a girl of 10 years old, watched, stunned, as dark clouds rolled in, and the wind whistled, making trees bend at its will. It
was only 2 in the afternoon, but anyone could've thought it was midnight. That afternoon, Merliah watched as her father corralled all the cattle into a
ditch. He was going to shoot them. Merliah covered her eyes as she heard the gunshots echo into the distance. In the morning, she put on a dust mask
and jogged to get to school, afraid she would become stuck in a dust storm. Although this was Merliah's life, everyone around her was experiencing the
same things. Dust, storms, poverty–– they were what were on everyone's' mind. The Dust Bowl was a series of devastating events that occurred in the
1930's. It affected not only crops, but people, too. Scientists have claimed it to be the worst drought in the United States in 300 years. It all began
because of "A combination of a severe water shortage and harsh farming techniques," said Kimberly Amadeo, an expert in economical analysis.
(Amadeo). Because of global warming, less rain occurred, which destroyed crops. The crops, which were the only things holding the soil in place,
died, which then caused the wind to carry the soil with it, creating dust storms. (Amadeo). In fact, according to Ken Burns, an American film maker,
"Some 850 million tons of topsoil blew away in 1935 alone. "Unless something is done," a government report predicted, "the western plains will be
as arid as the Arabian desert." (Burns). According to Cary Nelson, an English professor, fourteen dust storms materialized in 1932, and in 1933, there
were 48 dust storms. Dust storms raged on in the Midwest for about a decade, until finally they slowed down, and stopped. Although the dust storms
came to a halt, there was still a lot of concern. Thousands of crops were destroyed, and farmers were afraid that the dust storm would happen

Essay On The Dust Bowl
"We watched as the storm swallowed the light. The sky turned from blue to black, night descended in an instant and the dust was on us...Dust lay two
feet deep in ripply waves across the parlor floor, dust blanketed the cookstove, the icebox, the kitchen chairs, everything deep in dust." –Karen Hesse's
Diary, April, 1935 (Dust Bowl Diary Entries). In the 1930s, a phenomenon called the Dust Bowl swept the people of the Great Plains off their feet. This
paper defines the Dust Bowl and its impact on the US economy and American citizens.
Though most everyone has heard of the Dust Bowl, many people don't actually know what it is. "When rain stopped falling in the Midwest, farm
fields began to dry up" (The Dust Bowl). Much of the nation's crops couldn't grow, causing major economic struggle. "The Homestead Act of 1862,
which provided settlers with 160 acres of public land, was followed by the Kinkaid Act of 1904 and the Enlarged Homestead Act of 1909" (Dust
Bowl). This caused many inexperienced farmers to jump on this easy start of a career. Because of this, farmers in the Midwest had practiced
atrocious land management for years. This included over plowing the land and using the same crops year after year. In this way, lots of fertile soil had
gotten lost. This helped windstorms gather topsoil from the land, and whip it into huge clouds; dust storms. Hot, dry, and windy, almost the entire
middle section of the United States was directly affected. The states affected were South

Natural disasters can cause massive damage, but few realize that many barely last a few days. If so much can be done in such a minute amount of
time, imagine what a decade would do. The dust bowl was a weather event that lasted for the entirety of an eight–year drought and lingered for multiple
years after. The result: Economic devastation for the agriculture of the area. The dust bowl was a large contributor to agriculture's role in the great
depression and defines how we approach environmental protection today.
The timeline of the dustbowl characterizes the fall of agriculture during the late 1920s, primarily the area in and surrounding the Great Plains. The Dust
Bowl was created by a disruption in the areas natural balance. "With the crops and native vegetation gone, there was nothing to hold the topsoil to
the ground" ("Dust Bowl and" 30). Agricultural expansion and dry farming techniques caused mass plowing and allowed little of the land to go
fallow. With so little of the deeply rooted grass remaining in the Great Plains, all it took was an extended dry season to make the land grow dry and
brittle. When most of the land had been enveloped by the grass dust storms weren't even a yearly occurrence, but with the exponentiation of exposed
land, the winds had the potential to erode entire acres. This manmade natural disaster consumed such a large amount of the South's agriculture that it
had repercussions on the national level. The Dust Bowl was a "97–million–acre section

The Dust Bowl was a period of severe dust storms occurring in the American and Canadian prairies in 1930–1936. At the same time, the Dust Bowl
was not just a natural disaster that struck the large territory and affected the natural environment and economy of the US and partially Canada. In fact,
it was the disaster which revealed the full extent of the negative impact of human activities on the environment. The Dustbowl was provoked by
humans and put many people on the edge of survival. At the same time, the Dust Bowl proved to be the warning made by the nature to people to change
their attitude to their environment and their economic activities.
The Dust Bowl was definitely provoked by wrong and environmentally dangerous methods of farming. As the matter of fact, the Dust Bowl affected the
vast territory of the Great Plains and part of Canada. Moreover, until the late 19th century these lands had not been used for cultivation but the cattle
farming dominated in the region. Nevertheless, after droughts in the late 19th century, farmers started cultivating various plants, especially wheat in
the Great Plains region. However, the methods of farming were absolutely erroneous and inapplicable in the geographic and climatic conditions of the
Great Plains. Farmers used extensive methods of farming that led to the erosion of soil. They did not use such techniques as crop rotation, fallow
fields, cover crops and other techniques which could have prevented fast and irrevocable soil erosion. The soil was exhausted after a couple of
decades of extensive farming and the severe drought that struck the region accomplished the destructive impact of farmers on the environment. As the
matter of fact, the land which was used to be farmland had turned into a desert as soil turned into dust. Hence, the Dustbowl emerged as the effect of
the negative impact of farmers on the would–be fertile land of the Great Plains.
The early 1900's were a time of turmoil for farmers in the United States, especially in the Great Plains region. After the end of World War I,
overproduction by farmers resulted in low prices for crops. When farmers first came to the Midwest, they farmed as much wheat as they could because
of the higher prices and

The Dust Bowl was a difficult time that caused people to lose their lives or to have difficult ones. People got diseases, others lost everything they
had, and kids didn't get to grow up normal. One of these kids was Timothy Johnson. One day, he and his brothers were out when their mom called
them in, as she did a loud sound crashed through their trees. They heard the stories of many dust storms forming but Timothy hadn't known how they
would affect his life. They watched as dust clouded around them, they couldn't even see the tree Timothy and his brothers had played by. Days later
after the first storm, Timothy went back to school and talked about it with his friends. A few days later at school another one hit, and all the kids had
the realization of what was happening. About 6 months later kids would wear masks and many had gotten illnesses from what was now know as the
Dust Bowl. Timothy grew up a lot during the Dust Bowl, he went through many hardships and learned what to do to help out his family. After, he
wrote a documentary about it later becoming famous for the perfect way he portrayed it. Yet the story of Tim was only one of many caused by the
Dust Bowl, an awful time that destroyed many lives.
The Dust Bowl was a dark and difficult part of life for people of the 1930's. The Dust Bowl spread many diseases resulting in many people losing their
lives. English professor, Cary Nelson, explained "The simplest acts of life, breathing, eating a meal, taking a walk, were

The Dust Bowl Essay
The Dust Bowl
The Dust Bowl was "the darkest moment in the twentieth–century life of the southern plains," (pg. 4) as described by Donald Worster in his book "The
Dust Bowl." It was a time of drought, famine, and poverty that existed in the 1930's. It's cause, as Worster presents in a very thorough manner, was a
chain of events that was perpetuated by the basic capitalistic society's "need" for expansion and consumption. Considered by some as one of the worst
ecological catastrophes in the history of man, Worster argues that theDust Bowl was created not by nature's work, but by an American culture that was
working exactly the way it was planned. In essence, the Dust Bowl was the effect of a society, which deliberately set out to...show more content...
The "dirty thirties," as many called it, was a time when the earth ran amok in southern plains for the better part of a decade. This great American
tragedy, which was more devastating environmentally as well as economically than anything in America's past or present, painstakingly tested the spirit
of the southern plainsmen. The proud folks of the south refused at first to accept government help, optimistically believing that better days were ahead.
Some moved out of the plains, running from not only drought but from the new machine–controlled agriculture. As John Steinbeck wrote in the
bestseller The Grapes of Wrath, "it was not nature that broke the people–they could handle the drought. It was business farming, seeking a better return
on land investments and buying tractors to pursue it, that had broken these people, smashing their identity as natural beings wedded to the land."(pg.
58) The machines, one–crop specialization, non–resident farming, and soil abuse were tangible threats to the American agriculture, but it was the
capitalistic economic values behind these land exploitations that drove the plainsmen from their land and created the Dust Bowl.
Eventually, after years of drought and dust storms, the plains people had to accept some form of aid or fall to the lowest

John Steinbeck: Experiencing the Dust Bowl Essay
The 1930's were a decade of great change politically, economically, and socially. The Great Depression and the Dust Bowl wore raw the nerves of
the people, and our true strength was shown. From it arose John Steinbeck, a storyteller of the Okies and their hardships. His books, especially The
Grapes of Wrath, are reflections of what really went on in the 1930's. John Steinbeck did not write about what he had previously read, he instead wrote
what he experienced through his travels with the migrant workers. "His method was not to present himself notebook in hand and interview people.
Instead he worked and traveled with the migrants as one of them, living as they did and arousing no suspicion from employers militantly alert against
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These visits to the squatter camps led to his creation of the Weedpatch camp in "Grapes of Wrath".
A few years later, Steinbeck returned to California to write "Grapes of Wrath" and to further research the flawed California labor. "He was not,
however, merely researching materials for his next book, but passionately involved in the suffering and injustice" (Lisca 16). His fervor for the
migrant cause almost lead him to abandon his recent writing and revise "Of Mice and Men" and sell it so he could donate to money to the migrant
workers.
In early September 1936, Steinbeck went back to Salinas to find that there was a violent clash between growers and workers over a strike that resulted
in riots and killings. This turned Steinbeck upside down, because now it was not only something happening in California, but was happening in the
town where he grew up.
While visiting migrant camps that were being flooded by the torrential rain in Visalia, he was filled with anger at the conditions in which these people
were living (DeMott 3). The people were living in flooded tents where the people were without food or fire. The town and the county had stopped
giving help because the situation had become too unbearable (DeMott
Good 3 xxviii). Here is an excerpt from Steinbeck's personal journal when he was in Visalia in the winter of 1938:
I must go over into the interior valleys. There are about five thousand families starving to death over there, not just hungry but actually

The Dust Bowl Summary

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The Dust Bowl Summary