History

The Dust Bowl

The Dust Bowl chronicles the worst man-made ecological disaster in American history, in which the frenzied wheat boom of the Great Plow-Up, followed by a decade-long drought during the 1930s nearly swept away the breadbasket of the nation.

Reaping the Whirlwind

1h 55m

Black Sunday was only halfway through the decade-long crisis. The storms continued. The Great Depression still affected people. Government programs were instituted to help. Learn what FDR’s administration did to try to keep the southern Plains from becoming a North American Sahara desert. Find out why some residents finally decided they had to give up and move somewhere else and how some held on.

Episodes

  • Reaping the Whirlwind: asset-mezzanine-16x9

    Reaping the Whirlwind

    S1 E2 - 1h 55m

    Black Sunday was only halfway through the decade-long crisis. The storms continued. The Great Depression still affected people. Government programs were instituted to help. Learn what FDR’s administration did to try to keep the southern Plains from becoming a North American Sahara desert. Find out why some residents finally decided they had to give up and move somewhere else and how some held on.

  • The Great Plow-Up: asset-mezzanine-16x9

    The Great Plow-Up

    S1 E1 - 1h 55m

    The grasslands of the southern Plains were rapidly turned into wheat fields. Then following the early years of the drought, storms killed crops and livestock and literally rearranged the landscape. The worst storm of them all was on April 14, 1935—Black Sunday—a searing experience for everyone caught in it, including a young songwriter from Pampa, Texas, named Woody Guthrie.

Extras + Features

  • Boom Time: asset-mezzanine-16x9

    Boom Time

    S1 - 3m 24s

    The Great Plains goes through a boom period as land speculators tout the miraculous advantages of farming wheat. Government and private industry encourage the settlement and development of the region.

  • Photographers of the Dust Bowl: asset-mezzanine-16x9

    Photographers of the Dust Bowl

    S1 - 4m 41s

    During the Great Depression FDR's administration sought to document the economic crisis. Roosevelt's Farm Security Administration (FSA) was put in charge of the effort, which employed some of the country's most talented photographers.

  • Woody Guthrie: asset-mezzanine-16x9

    Woody Guthrie

    S1 - 3m 34s

    Woody Guthrie moves to Los Angeles in the second half of the 1930s and supports himself with odd jobs. He finally gets a radio show of his own and a newspaper column called “Woody Sez” and gains a reputation as a radical for sympathizing with the migrants.

  • Low Valued Wheat: asset-mezzanine-16x9

    Low Valued Wheat

    S1 - 1m 56s

    Even thought wheat prices had plummeted, farmers went back to work in the fall.

  • Fresh Start: asset-mezzanine-16x9

    Fresh Start

    S1 - 1m 14s

    Some of the people who went to CA got jobs giving them a fresh start.

  • Roosevelt Weather: asset-mezzanine-16x9

    Roosevelt Weather

    S1 - 50s

    FDR tours the Panhandle. The Dust Bowl airs on PBS November 18 and 19, 2012.

  • Woody Guthrie: Okies: asset-mezzanine-16x9

    Woody Guthrie: Okies

    S1 - 2m 19s

    No matter their state of origin, all newcomers were dubbed Okies when they crossed the California border. Woody Guthrie talks about the extreme poverty he had seen across the country and sings "I Ain't Got No Home (In This World Any More)".

  • Relief: asset-mezzanine-16x9

    Relief

    S1 - 6m 43s

    Social worker Dorothy Williamson describes her experiences talking with victims of the Dust Bowl. What help there was came from Washington, D.C., with programs such as the CCC, NYA, or WPA.

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