The Dust Bowl

Each narrative begins with the historical context of the event, discusses the event in detail, the aftermath, and then analyses the way the disaster changed history and impacted the future.
Housewives hung wet sheets and blankets over windows and struggled to seal every crack with gummed paper strips. A man avoided shaking hands because the static electricity generated from a dust storm might knock his greeter flat. Children's tears turned to mud. Dead cattle, when pried open, were found filled with pounds of gut-clogging dirt. The simplest thing in life, taking a breath, became life threatening. Conditions in America's prairie during the Dirty Thirties were no blind stroke of nature, however. They had their origins in human error and in the misuse of the land. The Dust Bowl recounts the factors that led to these conditions, how those affected coped, and what can be learned from the tragedy, considered by many to be America's worst prolonged environmental disaster.