Looking at The Dust Bowl as a
Social Scientist
(Historian, Geographer, and Political Scientist)
By
Gale Olp Ekiss
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What was the Dust Bowl?
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•
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A geographic disaster?
An economic disaster?
A human disaster?
A political disaster?
2
Why was there the Dust Bowl?
• Poor agricultural
practices
• Sustained drought
3
Where did the Dust Bowl occur?
Here are some statistics for
Nebraska:
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The effects of the Dust Bowl
were severe in some
locations
Normally, the state of Nebraska
averages around 20 inches of rainfall a
year.
In 1930, Nebraska got 22 inches of rain,
and the state's corn crop averaged 25
bushels per acre.
In 1934, Nebraska saw the driest year
on record with only 14.5 inches of
rainfall. The state's corn crop dropped
even more to only 6.2 bushels per acre.
In other words, between 1930 and 1934
rainfall dropped 27.5 percent, and as a
result corn crop yields dropped over 75
percent.
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When did the Dust Bowl occur?
• 1931--crops died and
“black blizzards” begin.
• 1932--14 dust storms
• 1933--38 dust storms
• 1934--dust storms spread
to a larger area and the
drought covers 27 states
• 1939--rain finally comes
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Who was affected by the Dust Bowl?
The people who lived in the area
• Approximately 200,000
migrants moved to California
during the Great Depression,
most arriving destitute.
• About 25% of the population left
the affected states and by 1940,
2.5 million people had moved
out of the Plains states.
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Who was affected by the Dust Bowl?
The farmers of the Dust Bowl area received help in these
programs:
•Emergency Farm Mortgage Act (1933) allots $200 million
for refinancing mortgages to help farmers facing
foreclosure.
•Frazier-Lemke Farm Bankruptcy Act (1934) is approved.
This act restricted the ability of banks to dispossess farmers
•Drought Relief Service (1935) to coordinate relief efforts
•Emergency Relief Appropriation Act (1935)provides $525
million for drought relief
•Soil Conservation Service (1935) in the Department of
Agriculture develops extensive conservation programs that
retained topsoil and prevented irreparable damage to the
•Shelterbelt Project (1937)begins. The project called for
large-scale planting of trees across the Great Plains,
stretching in a 100-mile wide zone from Canada to northern
Texas, to protect the land from erosion.
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So What?
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,
tractored out. Car-loads, 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 to live. Like
ants scurrying for work, for food, and
most of all for land."
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So What?
Farming Practices Changed:
seeding areas with grass
rotating crops
using contour plowing
planting “shelter belts” of trees to
break the wind
As historian Robert Worster wrote, “The
ultimate meaning of the dust storms of
the 1930s was that America as a whole,
not just the plains, was badly out of
balance with its natural environment.
Unbounded optimism about the future,
careless disregard of nature’s limits and
uncertainties, uncritical faith in
Providence, devotion to selfaggrandizement – all these were national
as well as regional characteristics.”
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So What?
QuickTime™ and a
decompressor
are needed to see this picture.
Role of Federal Government Changed
Through New Deal Programs:
President Herbert Hoover,
underestimated the seriousness of the
crisis, called it “a passing incident in our
national lives,” and assured Americans
that it would be over in 60 days.
Franklin Delano Roosevelt was elected
in a landslide victory in 1932. During
the first 100 days of his administration,
Roosevelt laid the groundwork for his
New Deal programs that would save the
country.
The Great Depression and the New
Deal changed forever the relationship
between Americans and their
government. Government involvement
and responsibility in caring for the
needy and regulating the economy came
to be expected.
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So What?
Congress passed many
programs to assist the public.
These New Deal programs still
exist today in some form:
Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation-insures that customers are compensated
against loss if the bank should fail.
Federal Housing Administration-provides loans for home construction.
Securities and Exchange Commission-protects investors from stock market
fraud.
Social Security Administration--created
a pension fund and provides
unemployment insurance, and public
assistance programs
Tennessee Valley Authority--built
dams, increased agricultural production
and revitalized the Tennessee Valley
region.
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Bibliography of Slides
Primary Sources
Slide 2 Photo
Lange, Dorothea. (1938). Dust bowl farm. Library of Congress American
Memory. Retrieved August 8, 2012 from http://memory.loc.gov
Slide 3 Photos
Rothstein, Arthur. (1936). Cattle in cornfield ruined by drought and grasshoppers.
Library of Congress American Memory. Retrieved August 8, 2012 from
http://memory.loc.gov
Lange, Dorothea. (1935). Dust storm. Library of Congress American Memory.
Retrieved August 8, 2012 from http://memory.loc.gov
Slide 5 Photo
Staats, Wilbur. (1937). Wind erosion is covering remains of unsuccessful farm in
Idaho. Library of Congress American Memory. Retrieved August 8, 2012 from
http://memory.loc.gov
Slide 6 Photo
Lange, Dorothea. (1937). Four families, three of them related with fifteen
children. Library of Congress American Memory. Retrieved August 8, 2012
from http://memory.loc.gov
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Bibliography of Slides
Primary Sources
Slide 7 Photo
Lange, Dorothea. (1937). Dust Bowl farmers in west Texas town. Library of
Congress American Memory. Retrieved August 8, 2012 from
http://memory.loc.gov
Slide 10 Newspaper
Depts.Washington.edu. Roosevelt and the New Deal. Labor Press Project.
Retrieved on August 9, 2012 from
http://depts.washington.edu/labhist/laborpress/images/NewDealer/3%29NewD
eal111238-1000.jpg
Slide 11 Political Cartoon
Berryman, Clifford. (1934). Of course we may have to change remedies. Library
of Congress American Memory. Retrieved August 8, 2012 from
http://memory.loc.gov (too small a graphic to use in power point)
CQ Press. (2003) Roosevelt and the New Deal.CQ Press in Context . Retrieved on
August 9, 2012 from
http://www.cqpress.com/context/constitution/docs/hist_milestones.html (used
in power point)
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Bibliography of Slides
Secondary Sources
Slide 2 Information
Croft Communications, Inc. (2012). Effects of the Great Depression. Great
Depression: What happened and how it compares with today. Retrieved
August 8, 2012 from http://www.thegreatdepressioncauses.com/effects.html
Slide 3 Information
Illinois.edu. About the Dust Bowl. Modern American Poetry. Retrieved August 8,
2012 from http://www.english.illinois.edu/maps/depression/dustbowl.htm
Slide 4 Map
Sussex County Technical High School. (2011). Map of the Dust Bowl. Out of the
Dust. Retrieved August 8, 2012 from
http://library.sussex.tec.nj.us/dacunto/Picturing%20the%20Unfamiliar/map.ht
m
Slide 4 Information
Wessels Living History Farm. No water, no crops. Wessels Living History Farm
York, Nebraska. Retrieved August 8, 2012 from
http://www.livinghistoryfarm.org/farminginthe30s/water_03.html
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Annotated Bibliography of Slides
Secondary Sources
Slide 5 Information
Illinois.edu. About the Dust Bowl. Modern American Poetry. Retrieved August 8,
2012 from http://www.english.illinois.edu/maps/depression/dustbowl.htm
This site gave me the historical timeline for the drought events. This completes
the stage for how Dust Bowl happened and when it happened.
Slide 6 Information
Croft Communications, Inc. (2012). Effects of the Great Depression. Great
Depression: What happened and how it compares with today. Retrieved
August 8, 2012 from http://www.thegreatdepressioncauses.com/facts-aboutdust-bowl-migration.html
Montana, Sam. (2009). Facts about the Dust Bowl. Knoji Consumer Knowledge.
Retrieved August 8, 2012 from http://history.knoji.com/facts-about-the-dustbowl/
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Bibliography of Slides
Secondary Sources
Slide 7 Information
Illinois.edu. Timeline of Dust Bowl. Modern American Poetry. Retrieved August
8, 2012 from http://www.english.illinois.edu/maps/depression/dustbowl.htm
Slide 8 Map
Skittlisous. Dust Bowl. Glogster.com. Retrieved August 8, 2012 from
http://www.glogster.com/skittlisous/dust-bowl/g6mpt2e6kmfn6mhlga9c3va0?old_view=True
Slide 11 Information
Taylor, Quintard, Jr. (2010). New Deal Agencies. History 101: Survey of the
United States. Retrieved on August 9, 2012 from
http://faculty.washington.edu/qtaylor/Courses/101_USH/new_deal.htm
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Bibliography of Slides
Tertiary Sources
Slide 9 Image of Crops
Microsoft. Rows of agricultural crops on a farm. Microsoft Office Great Britain. Retrieved
on August 9, 2012, from http://office.microsoft.com/engb/images/results.aspx?ex=2&qu=farming#ai:MP900400763|mt:0|
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