The Dust Bowl Essay - 1038 Words

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 1930s. Its cause, as Worster presents in a very thorough manner, was a chain of events that was perpetuated by the basic capitalistic societys 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 natures 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 Americas 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 lowestShow MoreRelatedThe Dust Bowl1192 Words   |  5 Pagesat a full moon. When he reached his house, his father rushed him inside. The first of many dust storms hit and the period known as the Dust Bowl began. The Dust Bowl was a brutal time period in Midwestern history; farmers were pushed off their land and forced to find new homes in new states. On a website called Drought Disasters, sponsored by Browing University, it was written â€Å"the seeds of the Dust Bowl may have been sown during the early 1920s. However, overproduction of wheat coupled with theRead MoreThe Dust Bowl 950 Words   |  4 PagesThe 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. TheyRead MoreDust Bowl Essay1233 Words   |  5 PagesThe Dust Bowl was a treacherous storm, which occurred in the 1930s, 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 twoRead MoreThe Dust Bowl Essay1436 Words   |  6 PagesOklahoma, 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 by such a destructive drought as the Dust Bowl, if not a worse one that would leave us withRead MoreThe Cause Of The Dust Bowl1181 Words   |  5 Pages16 October 2017  Outline Thesis: The Dust Bowl of the 1930s forever changed how Americans thought of and treated our farm lands in the Great Plains. Introduction I. Causes of the Dust Bowl A. The Drought in the Great Plains B. Improper Tending of the Land II. People Affected by the Dust Bowl A. Lawrence Srobin, Aris D. Carlson, and John Steinbeck B. Statistics of the Damage C. Farmer’s Problems Before the Dust Bowl III. FDR’s Fix for the Dust Bowl A. Strategic Planting of Trees in theRead More Dust Bowl Essay915 Words   |  4 Pagesanswers.com, a dust bowl is a region reduced to aridity by drought and dust storms. The best-known dust bowl is doubtless the one that hit the United States between 1933 and 1939. 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. The Dust Bowl affected the GreatRead MoreThe Great Depression And Dust Bowl1165 Words   |  5 PagesDepression/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. One of the main causes of the Dust Bowl was the poorRead MoreThe Dust Bowl and Agriculture Essay1070 Words   |  5 Pages One has not experienced the life of living in dirt until he has been in the dust bowl. It was a decade-long dust storm that impacted hundreds of farmers and their farmlands. Hardship was among one of the influences of the storm, which affected both farm workers and city folks. The storm also brought the elements of destruction and darkness, which reigned chaos across the Plains. Together, these issues gave the storm its popular name, â€Å"black blizzard† (Documentary, 2014). Such a name was given dueRead MoreThe Black Blizzard And The Dust Bowl1570 Words   |  7 PagesDuring the Dust Bowl many people and kids have suffered, many lost their home and their towns got ruined. One of the people who has suffered in the Dust Bowl is Ashton. When Ashton went to his school he was immediately pulled in by his teacher Mrs. Kam. He was then told that the entire middle east was affected by the Dust Bowl and that a black blizzard will hit very soon. Then the winds outside started to get faster, the windows getting hit by all the dust gathered from the storm, but luckily forRead MoreThe Dust Bowl Of The Great West1172 Words   |  5 PagesLucia Martinez Professor Kim Wombles English 1302 September 21, 2015 The Dust Bowl Imagine a great wall closing in on you with nowhere to run. Imagine sweeping a floor of sand that will never go away. Imagine having a terrible cough that leaves your throat irritated and raw to the point where you are coughing up blood. Imagine the disappointment of realizing a possible rain cloud is really a wall of dust rushing your way. For people living in the Midwest during the 1930s this was