Dust Bowl: The Southern Plains in the 1930s

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."

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.

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.

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.

Very useful for my Daughter's assignment