DUST BOWL 25TH ANNIVERSARY EDITION: The Southern Plains in the 1930s

I'm only commenting here because I have read and enjoyed this book and am not at all grasping some of the comments about it on these pages. First, for a book of American environmental history, it is hardly "dry." The writing is powerful and engaging. But it's a history book. Worster takes us into some of the analysis of why he blames those he blames for the problem, and yes that means talking about some pretty mundane documents and proceedings. I think he does a truly great job of keeping it interesting. Then there is the "Marxism" issue. Some commenters above suggest that he somehow urges a Soviet-style reform. That is just plain idiotic and wrong. His "Marxism" is simply a choice to examine the ways capitalism -- the desire to encourage and promote markets -- effected and promoted the dust bowl conditions. That's about as far as it goes. There is no homage paid to Lenin in these pages. No call for "Socialist controls." It's just history.

The author examines every aspect of the times leading up to, during and after the Dust Bowl. This book, coupled with Timothy Egan's Book " The Worst Hard Times", provide the most comprehensive, historical analysis and perspective of the Dust Bowl that's possible. Its a detailed yet gripping read. I finished the book and then listened to it on Audible with my wife a second time. I am now ordering additional copies for my Regionalism clients to give at Christmas.

Dust Bowl is an undeniable classic of environmental history. Donald Worster’s synthesis of ecology and social history set a precedent for the burgeoning field when the book was published in 1979. And as a document of “one of the worst… ecological blunders in history” (p. 4), Dust Bowl reads like a necessary cautionary tale from a wise elder. Yet, for all its thorough analysis, vivid imagery, and scholarly importance, Dust Bowl is often distractingly heavy-handed (Mind you—this review is coming from as staunch an environmentalist as you will meet.). It is telling that the book’s introductory quote comes from Karl Marx, with whom Worster shared a penchant for historical fatalism. Turn-of-the-century capitalism, Worster would argue, was (and in many ways still is) on a collision course with the natural limits of ecology, and this inevitable disaster manifested most clearly in the “Great American Desert” (p. 81) during the 1930s. But the notion of Culture, to which Worster points as the explanatory variable in our downfall—variously, a “capitalist ethos” (p. 96), or a set of “bourgeois values” (p. 136)—leaves no room for human agency and leaves this reader wondering: Are we looking at the issue critically or just commiserating? At best, Worster’s line of reasoning is accurate but extremely depressing. At worst, it is nihilistic and somewhat offensive (Note how often he uses the word “cling” in regards to traditional practices.). Indeed, Worster cautions in his preface that his argument “will not be acceptable to many plainsmen” (p. vii). I would take that sentiment further and suggest that it may not be acceptable to really anyone who has hope for the future. Since the publication of Dust Bowl, environmental historians have been engaged in a delicate tap dance with the most pressing issue facing our species: environmental degradation. Worster chose to focus on our most egregious ecological transgression and thus succeeded in demonstrating where we have gone spectacularly wrong. However, if, upon reflection, we are left at a loss for who “we” really are—except as an expression of some nebulous, overbearing idea of economics and Culture—then we would do well to reassess or perhaps look elsewhere.

THE IMAGE OF THE BOOK IS INCORRECT—CORRECT IMAGE IS ATTACHED. My farm is in Morton County, Kansas in the center of the Dust Bowl. We are making the same mistakes now as farmers did back in the thirties. "In the thirties....Planners demanded fresh thinking about traditional property rights of the individual [when] they threatened the community's welfare. Among the goals of this new agricultural conservation were removing excess marginal acreage from crop production, preventing soil erosion through improved agronomic practices, rural zoning and other grassroots regulatory action, solving chronic farm poverty, and bringing the science of ecology into resource management" (Worster 186). My farm has been in the Federal Soil Bank since the late 1990s, and we planted strains of drought-resistant grass on it. The problem is that other farmers in the area have drilled deep wells into the Ogallala aquifer and are pumping it dry even though the aquifer lies under everyone's land. One solution could be to develop the area for wind and solar energy but, even though Morton County gets more wind than anywhere else in the state, and high numbers of sunny days, entrenched interests prevent the development of a modern, new electric grid. They prefer to burn dirty coal and drain the fragile aquifer (it took a million years for nature to form it---at the current rate of depletion it will probably be gone in 50 years). Want to understand more about the Southern Plains culture--read this book.

Well put together history but too text book for my taste. I found it difficult to identify with the stories, More impersonal type of writing.Some really good pictures. I found "The Worst Hard Times" by Timothy Egan a much easier book to read.

For a thorough and factual account of the Dust Bowl, what led to it and how people lived and died during that time, this is the book. At times I get bogged down with stats, but that's just me. As a sociology major I have to wonder why this was not required reading, and then I realized it had not been written when I was in college. I am ignorant about this period of history and had been reading a lot about Dorothea Lange. That led me to this book and Ken Burns' documentary. A good combination.

Besides a thorough history of the dustbowl developments in the 1930s, it explains the underlying tragedy of plowing up the grasses in the Great Plains,despite the repeated warnings of many scientists. I learned a great deal from reading this book and recommend it. After the complete disruption of the ecology of the Great Plains, farmers are now over drawing the water resources of the underlying aquifer much faster than it can be replenished.

Donald Worster is on the very short list of the nation's most accomplished and perceptive historians of how Americans have explored and considered and exploited nature. He is also among the most prolific. "Dust Bowl," his second book, rightly won the Bancroft Prize, and lends a haunting personal dimension -- he is from Kansas -- to his elegant and saddening account of what wrong in the state during the "Dirty Thirties."

A different approach to traditional US history, whilst taking into account the determined and rugged outlook of the southerners and the freak geological conditions of the period, Worster concludes that it was American culture itself that led to the land being over exploited and resulting in the Dust Bowl. Graphic and humorous accounts punctuate an excellent analysis of the factors surrounding the Dust Bowl. Whilst his conclusions will no doubt be controversial, especially in America itself (the book opens with a quote from Marx) it is a valuable and powerful contribution to North American environmental history. It is a pleasure to read to boot. Well worth a look.

This book provides a comprehensive and insightful look at the Dust Bowl and reveals many things. Particularly useful are the two sections that analyze specific counties. This is an essential read for anyone trying to understand today's environmental crises.

Very useful for my Daughter's assignment

One of the new wave of eco-conscious histories, highly readable and a dread warning for our times. First straws in the wind now blowing hard

There are parts in the book that are high on rhetoric and low on fact and at some points it gets excessive.