Term paper on The Dust Bowl

The Dust Bowl

RESOURCE GUIDE

Throughout the 1930s, severely arid conditions in parts of Arkansas , Texas , and Oklahoma and on the Great Plains uprooted topsoil, turning these areas into huge dust bowls. In 1938, the worst year, an estimated 850 million tons of soil were lost. Unable to produce or to pay their mortgages, numerous farmers abandoned their home sites and headed westward in search of work. Many of these ‘‘Arkies” and ‘‘Okies” settled in California , whose population soared during the 1930s. Once there, many became underpaid, overworked migrant laborers, whose plight John Steinbeck vividly described in The Grapes of Wrath (1939).
Suggestions for Term Papers

1. Discuss the experiences of the Okies and other migrant farmers during the era of the Dust Bowl.

2. Why did California grow so rapidly during the 1930s?

3. Discuss the Great Depression novels of John Steinbeck.

4. Should the government have done more to combat the plight of farmers during the Depression?

5. What were the long-range consequences of the Dust Bowl?

Suggested Sources : See entry 32 for related items.

GENERAL SOURCES

Carter, Vernon G., and Tom Dale. Topsoil and Civilization . Rev. ed. Norman : University of Oklahoma Press, 1974. Agricultural history of the effects of topsoil on civilization and human ecology.

Mitchell, Don. The Lie of the Land: Migrant Workers and the California Landscape . Minneapolis : University of Minnesota Press, 1996. Historical overview of the plight of migrant agricultural workers in California during the twentieth century.

SPECIALIZED SOURCES

Andryszewski, Tricia. The Dust Bowl: Disaster on the Plains . Brookfield , CT : Milbrook, 1993. Easy-to-read and concise history of the severe dust storms that created the Dust Bowl during the Depression era.

Bonnifield, Mathew P. The Dust Bowl: Men, Dirt, and Depression . Albuquerque : University of New Mexico Press, 1979. Informative historical account of the depressed economic circumstances of the Great Plains caused by the dust storms.

Farris, John. The Dust Bowl . San Diego : Lucent Books, 1989. Easy-to-read, brief description of the severe drought in the Great Plains and the impact on the farmers.

Genzel, Bill. Dust Bowl Descent . Lincoln : University of Nebraska Press,

1984. Interesting pictorial work providing photographic records of the stark and dry landscape of the Great Plains during the time.

Gregory, James N. American Exodus: The Dust Bowl Migration and Okie Culture in California . New York : Oxford University Press, 1989. Informative social history of the western migration of rural families from the Great Plains and their relocation to California .

Hurt, R. Douglas. The Dust Bowl: An Agricultural and Social History . Chicago : Nelson-Hall, 1981. Brief historical overview of agricultural and social conditions of the Great Plains during the period of the dust storms.

Johnson, Vance. Heaven’s Tableland: The Dust Bowl Story . (1947). Reprint. New York: Da Capo, 1974. Historical narrative of the New Deal and its impact on the depressed Great Plains states.

Shindo, Charles J. Dust Bowl Migrants in the American Imagination . Lawrence: University of Kansas Press, 1997. Collection of illustrations of migrant agricultural workers and their plight during the depressed period.

Stanley, Jerry. Children of the Dust Bowl: The True Story of the School at Weedpatch Camp . New York: Crown, 1992. Brief and easy-to-read account of the life led by families of migrant workers in a federal labor camp in California.

Stein, Walter J. California and Dust Bowl Migration . Westport, CT: Greenwood, 1973. Examination of conditions regarding the migration to California of people escaping from the Dust Bowl.

Worster, Donald. Dust Bowl: The Southern Plains in the 1930s . New York: Oxford University Press, 1979. Informative agricultural history of the regions affected by the dust storms during the Depression.

BIOGRAPHICAL SOURCES

Low, Ann M. Dust Bowl Diary . Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1984. Case history based on the diary kept by a woman in North Dakota recording the depressed social and economic conditions of the time.

Rutland, Robert A. A Boyhood in the Dust Bowl, 1926–1934 . Niwot: University Press of Colorado, 1995. Brief autobiography providing a social history of life and customs in a small town in Oklahoma during the Depression.

Svobida, Lawrence. Farming the Dust Bowl: A First-hand Account from Kansas . (1940, 1968). Reprint. Lawrence: University of Kansas Press, 1986. Provides insight into the struggle against droughts, dust storms, and soil erosion. Originally published as An Empire of Dust prior to World War II.

AUDIOVISUAL SOURCES

Steinbeck, John. The Grapes of Wrath . Los Angeles: FoxVideo, 1940. Videocassette. No better insight is provided into the plight of the Okies than was contained in this book made into a motion picture. Henry Fonda provides a stirring performance as a migrant worker in this 129-minute feature.

WORLD WIDE WEB

The Dust Bowl . January 1996. http://drylands.nasm.edu:1995/bowl.html Brief description along with four photographs illustrating the desolation of this natural catastrophe.