How The Dust Bowl Affected America

The Dust Bowl: A Storm that Devastated a Nation The Dust Bowl, a series of extreme dust storms in and around the Great Plains, physically destroyed and emotionally devastated an already depressed America during the 1930s. While still in the midst of the Great Depression, the ecological and agricultural mishaps of farmers caused a drought and dust storm that affected America for years to come. In his book, Dust Bowl: The Southern Plains in the 1930s, Donald Worster states that while irresponsible farming practices played a part in the phenomenon, the underlying cause was that of capitalism (Worster, 5). Despite the fact that capitalism did play a role of cause and effect leading to these storms, ultimately the Dust Bowl was a result of farmers failing to carry out necessary agriculture requirements to protect the land they were harvesting. Consequently, the southern plains and surrounding areas suffered from drought and famine for nearly a decade. …show more content…
At this time, farmers had not yet taken the economic hit that other Americans had. They relied on their own crops and had not indulged in the luxuries that were washing machines, stockings, and automobiles. However, with the beginning of the Dust Bowl, farmers could no longer avoid the detrimental effects of the depression (Worster, 10). After World War I, Europeans looked to the Southern Plains after their wheat shipment was cut off. The government put extreme pressure on farmers to produce far more wheat than normal. This, some would say, was the beginning of the excessive agriculture that caused the Dust Bowl. Simply put, Europe’s need for imports began to take a tole on the Great Plains. According to Worster, however, they influenced it “not by sending it in a radically different direction, but by hastening trends already under way” (Worster,