dust bowl essay hook

The Dust Bowl: a Chronicle of Disaster and Resilience

This essay about the Dust Bowl explores the severe environmental disaster that affected the Southern Plains of the United States during the 1930s. It outlines the ecological, economic, and agricultural factors that led to this catastrophe, including intensive farming practices, severe drought, and the resulting massive dust storms. The essay also delves into the profound impact on the lives of thousands of families who were forced to leave their homes, as well as the national response to this crisis, highlighting the conservation measures introduced by the New Deal to prevent future occurrences. Through the Dust Bowl narrative, the essay emphasizes the lessons learned about sustainable agriculture, responsible land management, and the resilience of communities in the face of environmental challenges. It concludes by underlining the relevance of these lessons in addressing today’s ecological crises, advocating for vigilance and a commitment to environmental stewardship.

How it works

In the annals of American history, the Dust Bowl, an appellation birthed to encapsulate the calamitous environmental plight that ravaged the Southern Plains during the 1930s, stands as a profound testament to the imperative of environmental stewardship and the indomitable resilience of the human spirit. This epoch, characterized by relentless dust storms of unprecedented ferocity, etched itself into the chronicles of ecological catastrophe, leaving an indelible mark on the agricultural landscape and the lives of myriad families.

The genesis of the Dust Bowl can be discerned in an amalgam of ecological, economic, and agricultural antecedents.

The Southern Plains, encompassing swathes of Oklahoma, Texas, Kansas, and contiguous regions, experienced an unprecedented surge in wheat cultivation during the First World War, propelled by burgeoning demand and technological advancements. However, this agricultural expansion exacted a grievous toll. Intensive tillage practices and the absence of crop rotation denuded the land of its indigenous grasses, which erstwhile served as nature’s anchors, tethering the soil in place and shielding it from the erosive caress of the wind.

Concomitant with a severe drought that commenced in the early 1930s, the despoliation wrought by over-cultivation and over-grazing rendered the lands bereft of moisture retention capacity, precipitating the desiccation of the topsoil. The once-fecund plains metamorphosed into a dystopian tableau, with towering dust storms engulfing the horizon, shrouding the heavens in a sepulchral veil that lingered for days on end. These tempests of soil, soot, and sorrow, colloquially termed “black blizzards,” transcended geographical confines, casting their ominous pall over urban citadels on the Eastern Seaboard, including the metropolises of New York and Washington, D.C., thereby underscoring the national magnitude of the catastrophe.

The toll exacted on human lives by the Dust Bowl was staggering. Thousands of families, ensnared in the vise of failed harvests and foreclosure notices, were compelled to forsake their homesteads in pursuit of livelihoods and sanctuary elsewhere. This mass exodus, predominantly westward to California and beyond, was immortalized in the annals of literature and melody, most notably in the narrative tapestry woven by John Steinbeck’s magnum opus, “The Grapes of Wrath,” which captured the crucible of privation and perseverance endured by those ensnared in the maelstrom. Thus, the era of the Dust Bowl became synonymous not merely with environmental cataclysm, but also with the themes of displacement, fortitude, and the quest for dignity amidst the abyss of desolation.

In response to the cataclysm, the U.S. government, under the aegis of President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s New Deal, marshaled an array of conservation initiatives aimed at ameliorating the afflicted lands and forestalling future recurrences. These endeavors encompassed the establishment of the Soil Conservation Service (presently the Natural Resources Conservation Service), which advocated for techniques such as contour plowing, crop diversification, and the cultivation of cover crops to fortify and revitalize the soil.

The legacy of the Dust Bowl reverberates across the annals of time, transcending its immediate environmental and societal repercussions. It serves as an incisive parable of the symbiotic nexus between human endeavors and the natural milieu, accentuating the imperatives of sustainable agricultural methodologies and judicious land stewardship. Furthermore, it serves as a poignant testament to the tenacity of communities in the crucible of adversity, their capacity to adapt, reconstruct, and forge ahead buoyed by the beacon of hope for a brighter morrow.

In summation, the Dust Bowl endures as a watershed moment in the tapestry of American saga, emblematic of the perils wrought by environmental despoliation and the unwavering resolve of a populace steadfast in their determination to surmount them. It imparts invaluable lessons on the repercussions of neglecting custodial responsibilities towards the environment and underscores the exigency of concerted action in confronting ecological exigencies. As contemporary society grapples with emergent environmental challenges, the Dust Bowl serves as a clarion call for vigilance, ingenuity, and an unwavering commitment to the sustainable stewardship of our planet.

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By: History.com Editors

Updated: April 24, 2023 | Original: October 27, 2009

The Dust Bowl was the name given to the drought-stricken southern plains region of the United States, which suffered severe dust storms during a drought in the 1930s. As high winds and choking dust swept the region from Texas to Nebraska, people and livestock were killed and crops failed across the entire region. The Dust Bowl intensified the crushing economic impacts of the Great Depression and drove many farming families on a desperate migration in search of work and better living conditions.

What Caused the Dust Bowl?

The Dust Bowl was caused by several economic and agricultural factors, including federal land policies, changes in regional weather, farm economics and other cultural factors. After the Civil War , a series of federal land acts coaxed pioneers westward by incentivizing farming in the Great Plains.

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. These acts led to a massive influx of new and inexperienced farmers across the Great Plains.

Many of these late 19th and early 20th-century settlers lived by the superstition “rain follows the plow.” Emigrants, land speculators, politicians and even some scientists believed that homesteading and agriculture would permanently affect the climate of the semi-arid Great Plains region, making it more conducive to farming.

Manifest Destiny 

This false belief was linked to Manifest Destiny —an attitude that Americans had a sacred duty to expand west. A series of wet years during the period created a further misunderstanding of the region’s ecology and led to the intensive cultivation of increasingly marginal lands that couldn’t be reached by irrigation.

Rising wheat prices in the 1910s and 1920s and increased demand for wheat from Europe during World War I encouraged farmers to plow up millions of acres of native grassland to plant wheat, corn and other row crops. But as the United States entered the Great Depression , wheat prices plummeted. In desperation, farmers tore up even more grassland in an attempt to harvest a bumper crop and break even.

Crops began to fail with the onset of drought in 1931, exposing the bare, over-plowed farmland. Without deep-rooted prairie grasses to hold the soil in place, it began to blow away. Eroding soil led to massive dust storms and economic devastation—especially in the Southern Plains.

When Was the Dust Bowl?

The Dust Bowl, also known as “the Dirty Thirties,” started in 1930 and lasted for about a decade, but its long-term economic impacts on the region lingered much longer.

Severe drought hit the Midwest and southern Great Plains in 1930. Massive dust storms began in 1931. A series of drought years followed, further exacerbating the environmental disaster.

By 1934, an estimated 35 million acres of formerly cultivated land had been rendered useless for farming, while another 125 million acres—an area roughly three-quarters the size of Texas—was rapidly losing its topsoil.

Regular rainfall returned to the region by the end of 1939, bringing the Dust Bowl years to a close. The economic effects, however, persisted. Population declines in the worst-hit counties—where the agricultural value of the land failed to recover—continued well into the 1950s.

‘Black Blizzards’ Strike America

During the Dust Bowl period, severe dust storms, often called “black blizzards,” swept the Great Plains. Some of these carried topsoil from Texas and Oklahoma as far east as Washington, D.C. and New York City , and coated ships in the Atlantic Ocean with dust.

Billowing clouds of dust would darken the sky, sometimes for days at a time. In many places, the dust drifted like snow and residents had to clear it with shovels. Dust worked its way through the cracks of even well-sealed homes, leaving a coating on food, skin and furniture.

Some people developed “dust pneumonia” and experienced chest pain and difficulty breathing. It’s unclear exactly how many people may have died from the condition. Estimates range from hundreds to several thousand people.

On May 11, 1934, a massive dust storm two miles high traveled 2,000 miles to the East Coast, blotting out monuments such as the Statue of Liberty and the U.S. Capitol.

The worst dust storm occurred on April 14, 1935. News reports called the event Black Sunday. A wall of blowing sand and dust started in the Oklahoma Panhandle and spread east. As many as three million tons of topsoil are estimated to have blown off the Great Plains during Black Sunday.

An Associated Press news report coined the term “Dust Bowl” after the Black Sunday dust storm.

New Deal Programs

President Franklin D. Roosevelt established a number of measures to help alleviate the plight of poor and displaced farmers. He also addressed the environmental degradation that had led to the Dust Bowl in the first place.

As part of Roosevelt’s New Deal , Congress established the Soil Erosion Service and the Prairie States Forestry Project in 1935. These programs put local farmers to work planting trees as windbreaks on farms across the Great Plains. The Soil Erosion Service, now called the Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) developed and promoted new farming techniques to combat the problem of soil erosion.

Okie Migration

Roughly 2.5 million people left the Dust Bowl states— Texas , New Mexico , Colorado , Nebraska , Kansas and Oklahoma—during the 1930s. It was one of the largest migrations in American history.

Oklahoma alone lost 440,000 people to migration. Many of them, poverty-stricken, traveled west looking for work. From 1935 to 1940, roughly 250,000 Oklahoma migrants moved to California . A third settled in the state’s agriculturally rich San Joaquin Valley.

These Dust Bowl refugees were called “Okies.” Okies faced discrimination, menial labor and pitiable wages upon reaching California. Many of them lived in shantytowns and tents along irrigation ditches. “Okie” soon became a term of disdain used to refer to any poor Dust Bowl migrant, regardless of their state of origin.

Dust Bowl in Arts and Culture

The Dust Bowl, and the suffering endured by those who survived it, captured the hearts and imaginations of the nation’s artists, musicians and writers.

John Steinbeck memorialized the plight of the Okies in his 1939 novel The Grapes of Wrath . Photographer Dorothea Lange documented rural poverty with a series of photographs for FDR’s Farm Securities Administration, and artist Alexandre Hogue achieved renown with his Dust Bowl landscapes.

Folk musician Woody Guthrie , and his semi-autobiographical first album Dust Bowl Ballads of 1940, told stories of economic hardship faced by Okies in California. Guthrie, an Oklahoma native, left his home state with thousands of others looking for work during the Dust Bowl.

FDR and the New Deal Response to an Environmental Catastrophe. Roosevelt Institute . About The Dust Bowl. English Department; University of Illinois . Dust Bowl Migration. University of California at Davis . The Great Okie Migration. Smithsonian American Art Museum . Okie Migrations. Oklahoma Historical Society . What we learned from the Dust Bowl: lessons in science, policy, and adaptation. Population and Environment . The Dust Bowl. Library of Congress . Dust Bowl Ballads: Woody Guthrie. Smithsonian Folkways Recordings . The Dust Bowl. Ken Burns; PBS .

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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

Dust Bowl DBQ

Imagine living on a farm out west during the 1930s. In the middle of a series of terrible dust storms. The dust storms were so horrific, children were dying from “dust pneumonia” which was a result of breathing the dust in. These dust storms would trap plains settlers in their homes for hours, days at a time. This series of dust storms is better known as the Dust Bowl. It forced 3 million settlers out of their homes. Drought, increased mechanization, and destruction of grass all lead to the Dust Bowl.

Taking a Look at the Dust Bowl

The Dust Bowl, battering the Midwest for nearly a decade with high winds, bad farming techniques, and drought, became a pivotal point in American history. The wind storm that seemed relentless beginning in the early 1930’s until its spell ended in 1939, affected the lives of tens of thousands of Americans and the broader agriculture industry. The catastrophic effects of the Dust Bowl took place most prominently around the Great Plains, otherwise known as the farming belt, including states such as Oklahoma, Texas, and Kansas, which were hit extraordinarily hard. Millions of farming acres destroyed by poor farming techniques was a major contributor to what is considered to be one of the worst man-made environmental disasters in American history. This period resulted in almost a decade of unstable farming and economic despair. Thousands of families sought government assistance in order to survive. Luckily, government aid to farmers and new agriculture programs that were introduced to help save the nation’s agriculture industry benefited families and helped the Great Plains recover from the Dust Bowl. Furthermore, the poor conditions in the farm belt were also compounded by the Great Depression as it was in full swing as the Dust Bowl began to worsen. In addition, World War I was also underway which caused a high demand for agricultural products, such as wheat, corn, and potatoes to be at its peak, which lured many people to the farm belt with the false expectation that farming

The Dust Bowl Essay

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 the Dust 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

Dust Bowl Essay

One major cause of that Dust Bowl was severe droughts during the 1930’s. The other cause was capitalism. Over-farming and grazing in order to achieve high profits killed of much of the plain’s grassland and when winds approached, nothing was there to hold the devastated soil on the ground.

Thesis Statement For The Dust Bowl

= Topic sentence = Thesis Statement = Explanation = Quote

Essay On The Dust Bowl

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

The Great Depression And Dust Bowl

The ‘Dirty Thirties’ is perhaps one of the most known time periods in American History. During the 1930s, the worst and longest drought occurred in the United States, this was also know as the Dust Bowl. According to Christopher Klein, the Dust Bowl is considered both a man-made and natural disaster. In fact, many events contributed to the Dust Bowl such as poor farming techniques, a severe drought, and economic depression.

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

What Caused The Dust Bowl? Essay

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.

Causes Of The Dust Bowl

The Dust Bowl began in the 1930s and lasted a decade. It was sometimes referred to as the “Dirty Thirties”, which was the name given to the worst natural and manmade disaster in U.S. history. The lives of thousands, both young and old, were lost due to the damaging effects of the dust. The Dust Bowl started in the Midwest and affected Oklahoma, Texas, Kansas, Colorado, New Mexico and part of Nebraska. However, the physical damage was felt throughout the nation, when the winds took the dust beyond these states. What natural and manmade causes created this human tragedy? How did it contribute to the decline of the economy and the era known as the Great Depression? How did the people of the United States persevere through this tragedy, and will we have to go through another devastating era like this again?

Dust Bowl Criticism

The printed work of the Dust Bowl written by Donald Worster tells of the devastating man-made events that occurred between 1929 and 1939. Worster described this time in history as the darkest moment life in the southern plains encountered in the twentieth-century (4) which was a time where drought, poverty, and famine were of concern. Worster also ties the Great Depression with the Dust Bowl and said that the same society produced them both because of the weakness of America (5). He strongly believes that the Dust Bowl was not a disaster created by nature, but a crisis created by man due to capitalism. Dust Bowl gives a powerful stance on how man ignored the limits of the land which led them into the dirty thirties; however, his beliefs cause him to disregard the disaster as the fault of nature, and specifically blamed man.

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

Dust Bowl Dbq

In the 1930s, there was a period of time known as the Dirty Thirties, or in other words the Dust Bowl. This period of time consisted of severe dust storms that significantly damaged the economy and agriculture of the U.S and Canadian prairies. The many causes of this crisis is one that has been discussed and debated for many years. However, the main cause of this entire debacle is indeed due to the horrendous drought that destroyed everything in sight. In addition, the other causes included overproduction and improper farming by farmers, high heat and winds, and lastly the unfortunate plague of grasshoppers.

Dust Bowl Bt Donald Worster Essay

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

• 13 Works Cited

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

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The Dust Bowl Experience: Dust Bowl Writing Project

Authors: Amy Andrews, Chicago Public Schools Jennifer Chisholm, District 65 Judy Koon, Mary and Leigh Block Museum of Art Sarah Salto, Mary and Leigh Block Museum of Art

Summary: This lesson is designed as a culminating activity about the Dust Bowl. It allows students to synthesize their learning by recreating the voices of those who experienced the Dust Bowl. First, students will recap what they have learned about the Dust Bowl. Then they will consider how the events of that time might have affected different people within a community. Students will generate a list of possible characters in a fictional Dust Bowl community. Each student will choose a character and conduct research to find details that will make the character more realistic. Then each student will write a text in the voice of that character, using a RAFT organizer and rubric to guide their writing. Students will revise and edit their work and present it to the class.

Lesson Overview

Grade Levels: 5–8

Time Needed: 2–3 class periods, 40–50 minutes each

Background Needed

Students should have previously learned about the causes and effects of the Dust Bowl and the experiences of the people who lived through it. The following resources can be used to provide this instruction before students begin this lesson:

• Experiencing a Dust Storm 
• Art Study: Dust 
• Documenting Lives: Dorothea Lange’s Migrant Mother 
• Art Study: Migrant Mother  
• Analyzing Point of View: “Freak Show” from Out of the Dust 

Essential Questions

• How were people’s experiences of the Dust Bowl affected by their roles in society?
• How did people’s different experiences help shape their points of view about the Dust Bowl?
• How can writing narratives and informational texts about the Dust Bowl create a deeper, more complex understanding of this era?

Enduring Understandings

• Learning about the Dust Bowl can help us understand how people endure and survive when faced with disaster.
• Primary sources deepen our knowledge by helping us understand important historical events from different points of view.
• Studying the past helps us to better understand the present world and the future.
• Students will produce clear and coherent writing in which the development, organization, and style are appropriate to task, purpose, and audience.
• Students will develop and strengthen writing as needed by planning, revising, editing, rewriting, or trying a new approach.
• Students will integrate and evaluate information presented in diverse media and formats, including visually, quantitatively, and orally.

Key Vocabulary

• point of view
• primary source

Standards Connections

Common Core State Standards

Anchor Standards in Writing: http://www.corestandards.org/ELA-Literacy/CCRA/W/

• CCSS-ELA Writing Anchor Standard 4: CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.CCRA.W.4
• CCSS-ELA Writing Anchor Standard 5: ELA-LITERACY.CCRA.W.5

Anchor Standards in Speaking and Listening: http://www.corestandards.org/ELA-Literacy/CCRA/SL/

• CCSS-ELA Speaking and Listening Anchor Standard 2: CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.CCRA.SL.2

In the Classroom

• a computer with Internet access
• an interactive whiteboard or another classroom projector

Works of Art

• Mervin Jules, Dust
• Dorothea Lange, Migrant Mother, and five other frames in the same series:  http://www.loc.gov/rr/print/list/128_migm.html
• Arthur Rothstein, Father and sons walking in the face of a dust storm, Cimarron County, Oklahoma: http://www.loc.gov/pictures/resource/ppmsc.00241/

Other Resources

• Dust Storm Writing Project RAFT Organizer 
• Dust Storm Writing Project RAFT Rubric
• Art Study: Migrant Mother 

Websites for Student Research

• Dorothy Creigh, “The Dust Bowl Years,” Adams County Nebraska Historical Society, accessed August 19, 2014, http://www.adamshistory.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=18& . This in-depth article about the Dust Bowl includes first-hand accounts and information about health issues that people faced.
• “Dear Mrs. Roosevelt,” New Deal Network, accessed August 19, 2014, http://newdeal.feri.org/eleanor/fm1137.htm . A letter to the First Lady from a 13-year-old boy in a Dust Bowl area.
• “The Dust Bowl: A Film by Ken Burns,” Public Broadcasting Service, accessed August 14, 2014, http://www.pbs.org/kenburns/dustbowl/ . This website includes videos, photographs, biographies, and an interactive game related to Ken Burns’ 2012 documentary about the Dust Bowl.
• “Dust Bowl Lore,” Oklahoma Historical Society’s Encyclopedia of Oklahoma History and Culture, accessed August 19, 2014, http://digital.library.okstate.edu/encyclopedia/entries/D/DU012.html . Recounts famous Dust Bowl sayings and stories.
• “Dust Bowl Stories,” Active Aging: Serving Readers in South Central Kansas, accessed August 19, 2014, http://www.activeagingonline.com/Articles/ . Provides a link to first- and second-hand recollections of the Dust Bowl.
• “Farm Security Administration/Office of War Information Black-and-White Negatives – Browse by Subject,” Library of Congress, accessed August 19, 2014, http://www.loc.gov/pictures/collection/fsa/index/subjects/d/ . Students can find Dust Bowl photographs by searching for subjects such as droughts and dust storms.
• “Farming in the 1930s,” Wessels Living History Farm, accessed August 12, 2014, http://www.livinghistoryfarm.org/farminginthe30s/farminginthe1930s.html . Provides background information and video interviews with Dust Bowl survivors.
• Caroline Henderson, “Letters from the Dust Bowl,” The Atlantic, accessed August 19, 2014, http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/1936/05/letters-from-the-dust-bowl/308897/ . A primary source describing daily life during the Dust Bowl.
• Ron Jackson, “Surviving the Dust Bowl,” NewsOK, accessed August 19, 2014, http://ndepth.newsok.com/dustbowl . An article about the Dust Bowl years that includes an embedded video.
• “Photos: The Dust Bowl,” denverpost.com, posted November 19, 2012, http://blogs.denverpost.com/captured/2012/11/19/dust-bowl/5794/
• “Timeline: Surviving the Dust Bowl, 1931-1939,” Public Broadcasting Service, accessed September 8, 2014, http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/features/timeline/dustbowl/ . The timeline lists significant events related to the Dust Bowl years.
• “Voices from the Dust Bowl: The Charles L. Todd and Robert Sonkin Migrant Worker Collection, 1940-1941,” Library of Congress, accessed August 19, 2014, http://www.loc.gov/collection/todd-and-sonkin-migrant-workers-from-1940-to-1941/about-this-collection/ . Includes audio of songs, poems, and interviews recorded in migrant farm worker camps, as well as photographs, articles, and primary source documents.

Lesson Steps

• Recap what students have learned about the Dust Bowl: Invite students to share what they have learned about life during the Dust Bowl. Ask them how the images, primary source documents, videos, and other sources they have examined have helped them understand the causes and effects of the Dust Bowl and its impact on millions of people.
• Discuss the particular hardships that people in a Dust Bowl community would have faced:
• What would different members of the community have observed during and after a dust storm? For example, think about what a doctor, farmer, storeowner, child, teacher, banker, or mother would have noticed.
• How did people get their news at that time? How and when would they learn about the dust storms?
• How did the dust storms affect their homes and businesses?
• Where did they get their clothes and food? How could the dust storms affect that?
• Have students create a list of characters: Using historic images as source material, have students create a list of characters in a fictional farming community affected by the Dust Bowl. Students can examine FSA photographs from the Library of Congress ( http://www.loc.gov/pictures/collection/fsa/index/subjects/d/ ) or Dust Bowl images from PBS ( http://www.pbs.org/kenburns/dustbowl/photos/ ) for further inspiration. Characters could include children, newspaper or radio reporters, musicians, farmers, storeowners, doctors, teachers, documentary photographers, bankers, or other people in the community. Then have students look at the list of characters and generate some specific questions they would like to ask each character about his or her experiences during the Dust Bowl. Record the questions so students can refer to them as they conduct their research.
• Use the RAFT Organizer and Rubric to describe the task: Tell students they will bring the Dust Bowl to life by choosing a character, conducting research to create a realistic portrayal of the character, and writing a text in the voice of that character. Distribute copies of the Dust Bowl Writing Project RAFT Organizer and Rubric . Explain that their writing should do the following:
• Role: The writing should be from the point of view of a specific character in the community.
• Audience: The writing should be directed to a particular audience.
• Format: The writing should be in a specific format, such as a letter, a multimedia presentation, or a speech.
• Topic: The writing should focus on a particular topic related to the Dust Bowl.

Go through a few examples on the organizer. Students may choose one of these examples or create their own character and writing task by filling in the role, audience, format, and topic in the blank row at the bottom. Go through the rubric so that students will understand the expectations.

• Have students conduct research: Allow students time to conduct research in order to build a realistic understanding of their characters and their experiences in the Dust Bowl. Students can use the questions generated about each character to guide their research. The Lesson Overview includes links to websites with photographs, videos, audio recordings, articles, and primary source documents that will help students “flesh out” the characters they have chosen.
• Have students write and edit their work: Have students write a first draft. Provide time for peer editing in pairs or small groups, using the rubric as a guide. Then have students revise and edit their writing to prepare a final draft.
• Share students’ writing with the class: Have students present their final written work to their classmates by displaying it or reading it aloud. Students might create or bring in objects and items of clothing to help bring their characters to life. Invite the class to respond to their classmates’ writing orally or in a journal, reflecting on what they’ve learned about life during the Dust Bowl.

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Dust Bowl Essay

Causes of the Dust Bowl The dust bowl was one of the most challenging moments in history that took place from 1931-1941. During this time, people were suffering and experiencing a myriad of hardships. Even Writer Timothy Egan states in his book that it was “a classic tale of human beings pushing too hard against nature, and nature pushing back,” which is known as the dust bowl . As you can see, some of the causes that provoked the dust bowl were poor farming techniques and drought, leading to severe dust storms called “Black Blizzards,” known as the dust bowl. To begin, one of the contributing factors was dangerous farming methods. Farmers were over-farming, over-plowing, and overgrazing the prairie lands, which demolished most of the grasslands. Eventually, all that was left was bare land that led to erosion of soil vulnerable to the mighty wind. Additionally, farmers shrouded the prairie lands with wheat instead of natural drought-resistant grasses, which resulted in substantial environmental deterioration. …show more content…

In fact, there were nine years of below-average rainfall resulting in droughts. As a consequence of the drought, it caused the land to be arid and created a water shortage that led to crops dying. This is an impeccable condition for Dust Bowl as the wind blew across the plains to pick up the dirt forming massive swirling dust storms. To sum up, the dust bowl was provoked by both humans and nature combined, poor farming techniques and droughts. If people had not over-plowed and over-grazed the prairie plains, maybe the dust bowl might not have taken place. As you can see, the dust bowl occurred due to the adverse impact of over-farming methods on the environment combined with mother nature

Dust Bowl Dbq Essay

Some of the states severely affected were Oklahoma, Kansas, Texas, New Mexico, and Colorado. Cattle became blinded during dust storms and ran around in circles, inhaling dust, until they fell and died, their lungs caked with dust and mud. Newborn calves suffocated. Three reasons for the Dust Bowl: Loss Of shortgrass prairie, mechanization of farming and lack of rainfall. The Dust Bowl was caused by the loss of short prairie grass.

Natural Or Environmental Factors That Led To The Dust Bowl

The Events: What were some of the events that led to the Dust Bowl? The invention of new appliances such as tractors led to too much farming. More and more people came to Kansas because people were advertising the land. There was a higher demand for wheat and wheat was cheap and easy to plant (world war one).

Dust Bowl Research Paper

The drought killed the grass which made the soil lack the roots as an anchor, “So the winds easily picked up the loose topsoil and swirled it into dense dust clouds, called black blizzards”(“Dust Bowl”). This dust wasn't just destructive it was also deadly. The dust could kill if people inhaled enough of it. The dust was more deadly to infants and elderly people.

Why Roosevelt Proved During The Great Depression

The great depression sparked the beginning of the dust bowl. The dust bowl was a series of dust storms caused by both natural and manmade factors. The dust bowl had a huge impact on americans. The dust bowl ruined peoples farms and their crops so they weren't able to make a living off of their farms resulting in them being forced to abandon their homes and farms. The loss of their farms and homes caused a lot of people to migrate to different parts of the country hoping they would find work.

The Ecological Disaster In The Dust Bowl

The Dust Bowl is a classic tale of humans pushing too hard against nature and nature pushing back (The Dust Bowl). The narrator of the film said it was the worst man-made ecological disaster in American history (The Dust Bowl). The groups of people that choose to live in this region choose to ignore the history of the land that included droughts and severe winters. Ignoring the severe winters of the 1880’s caused the “Beef Bonanza” to close and a severe drought in the 1890’s that pushed farmers off the land. Farmers ignored the ecosystem by ridding the land of the vegetation that had evolved.

These poor weather conditions led to the Dust Bowl because without consistent rainfall, crops were unable to grow. Without crops growing, acres of farmland were solely covered in dry dirt that was easily kicked up and blown away. If more rain were to have fallen yearly, crops would have had a much higher chance of growing, eliminating the uncontrolled amount of dirt.

How Have Humans Changed The Dust Bowl

This made the scarcity of resources seem never-ending and constantly brutal. The Dust Bowl was abundantly less ruthless in the coastal states of America. The Dust Bowl happened because the mid-western area that it affected most was a zone with high winds and in some cases dustier weather in general. Tall grasses that grew natively and naturally in the soil held the roots in place for the dirt, and the farmers soon plowed up that dirt to plant crops for themselves and the market.

Darkness at noon, plagues of dirt and dust battering you in your home. When you wake up, fine dust cakes everything you own. This was the reality for so many in the Great Plains region of the United States during the Dust Bowl. In the 1930s, the Dust Bowl was extensively immense and overbearing for many. Resulting in a decade of bitter darkness at midday, a surplus of casualties in both livestock and humans, and the destruction of agricultural systems, the Dust Bowl caused extensive damage and hardship in a time of ongoing uncertainty and despair.

How Did The Dust Bowl Affect The Environment

The Dust Bowl was a terrible era for America and took an extended time for recovery. It was a series of dust storms happening from 1932 to 1938 (Jones 1). Also known as the dirty thirties, the Dust Bowl was not the best time to be a farmer considering fifty million acres of farm land was destroyed ("Dust Bowl" 1). "The cause of the Dust Bowl was a mixture of natural drought and poor farming practices" (Trimarchi 1). Even though the Dust Bowl was an important part of American history, it caused much devastation and damage to the environment, people, and the economy.

The Dust Bowl: The Dirty Thirties

The Dust Bowl, also known as the Dirty Thirties, was a period of severe dust storms and soil erosion that occurred in the central and southern Great Plains of the United States during the 1930s. This disaster was a result of a combination of economic, political, and agricultural factors that created the conditions for the massive dust storms to occur. One of the primary causes of the Dust Bowl was the economic conditions of the time. The Great Depression of the 1930s created a demand for cheap food, leading to overproduction of crops in the Great Plains.

Dust Bowl Dbq Analysis

The three main causes of the Dust Bowl was Drought, amount of land being harvested on, and death of the shortgrass prairie. All of these reasons have to tie in with soil and water. The Dust Bowl was truly the Worst Hard Time in American history. It affected the great plains of america forever and would go down in

The disaster known as the Dust Bowl was a major setback for American and Americans in the Midwest. The Dust Bowl was a time in history where drought was at its peak. The drought was throughout the states; Colorado, Kansas, Texas, Oklahoma, and New Mexico. The Dust Bowl lasted for six years, 1930 to 1936. The 1930s was not only known for the Dust Bowl, but for other reasons also like, The Great Depression and WW1.

Dust Bowl Dbq

What Caused the Dust Bowl? In the 1930’s the Great Depression had hit America. The great depression made many cities and small towns fale, but it affected those on the Southern Great Plains the most. This region has come to be known as the Dust Bowl.

Dust Bowl Thesis

Thesis:People's actions caused the dust bowl” The dust bowl Hook: It was a long decade. Full of loneliness,dullness and most of all sickness. "Dust Bowl“A severe drought happened and it had caused dry land farming and the plants could not grow.

Essay On The Dust Bowl

Livestock could not breath or find food sources. Thousands of people lost their homes due to the storm. Changes in farming and agriculture in the early 1900s altered the landscape and soil creating the perfect environment for the Dust Bowl and impacted living conditions and economic policy. First, changes in farming and agriculture over the years led to the conditions that caused the Dust Bowl and impacted the Great Plains. “Wind and drought alone did not create the Dust Bowl.

More about Dust Bowl Essay

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Dust Bowl Essay Examples

The dust bowl: environmental disaster and human resilience.

The Dust Bowl, one of the most devastating environmental crises in American history, left an indelible mark on both the land and the people who lived through it. This essay delves into the causes and consequences of the Dust Bowl, the human experiences of those...

The Dust Bowl and Its Impact on Society

The Dust Bowl ravaged the southern and middle states of America during the 1930s. This event created so much strife in the United States and continues to impact society today. The Dust Bowl was known for the enormous dust clouds in the sky that lasted...

The Dust Bowl: How It Made Us More Environmentally Friendly

In the American Prairies, the Dust Bowl was a time with severe dust storms in the 1930s. The Dust Bowl was not only a natural disaster, as it impacted large regions of the United States, and it’s environment and culture by displacing multiple people. Nonetheless,...

A Research Paper on the Dust Bowl in America

Humans have been to blame for several unfortunate disasters which have occurred throughout our history – Chernobyl, oil spills into the ocean, and the Bhopal gas leak in India, to name a few. One such human disaster which lasted for almost a decade was an...

Review of the Book Dust Bowl: the Southern Plains in the 1930s

Donald Worster’s impeccable work, Dust Bowl: The Southern Plains in the 1930s, provides a detailed analysis of the American peoples’ attitude towards the environmental catastrophe during the thirties. The Dust Bowl is a well-researched disastrous combination of man and environmental dealings. “Black blizzards” of the...

Dust Bowl: Capitalism is the Cause of the Environmental and Economic Disaster

In his work, Dust Bowl: The Southern Plains in the 1930’s, Donald Worster primarily argues that capitalism is the cause of the environmental and economic disaster that was the Dust Bowl. Worster starts in his introduction discussing three ways in which capitalism was responsible for...

Conflict and Compromise: the Major Events of the 1930s  

James Mead once said, “In the 1930s one was aware of two great evils - mass unemployment and the threat of war”. The 1930s was a very devastating time for people. Many events caused pain and aggravation. There was mass unemployment and the constant threat...

The Great Depression: Important Role of Banks, Money in the United States Economy

The Great Depression was an economic breakdown in the history of the United States during the years of 1929 to 1939. When the Dust Bowl occurred it was not much help to people with jobs in the Middle East. Their only option was to become...

Great Depression: Roosevelt’s New Deal

Americans were fleeing economically demolished areas such as the Dust Bowl but as the saying goes, “ You can run but you can’t hide.” This goes for both individuals and businesses such as banks. The Great Depression impacted everyone. Banks were hit hard immediately after...

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About Dust Bowl

1930 - 1940

The Dust Bowl was a period of severe dust storms that greatly damaged the ecology and agriculture of the American and Canadian prairies during the 1930s. The drought came in three waves: 1934, 1936, and 1939-1940, but some regions of the High Plains experienced drought conditions for as many as eight years.

Economic depression coupled with extended drought, unusually high temperatures, poor agricultural practices and the resulting wind erosion all contributed to making the Dust Bowl. The seeds of the Dust Bowl may have been sowed during the early 1920s.

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