The "Dust Bowl" describes both a time in American history (the mid 1930s) and a region of the country (the Great Plains). As a result of severe weather (including blinding dust storms caused by drought), misuse of the land by farmers, and the economic pressures of the Great Depression, farmers and their families in a large area of the Central United States were faced with loss of usable land, lack of work, and extreme poverty. This is their story, told in their own words and in photographs. Selections include newspaper accounts, letters, interviews, memoirs, songs, government documents, FDR's "Second New Deal," and an excerpt from The Grapes of Wrath, by John Steinbeck.
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