Surviving the Dust Bowl

Author

Chana Gazit

Call Number

• DVD 973.917 S9639 (CEN)

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Languages

Closed-captioned.

Performers

Narrated by Liev Schreiber.

Publication Information

[Boston] : WGBH Educational Foundation : Distributed by PBS Distribution, [2010]

Physical Description

1 videodisc (ca. 55 min.) : sd., col. with b&w sequences ; 4 3/4 in.

Audience

Not rated.

Summary

In 1931 the rains stopped and the "black blizzards" began. Powerful dust storms carrying millions of tons of stinging, binding black dirt swept across the Southern Plains--the panhandles, of Texas and Oklahoma, western Kansas, and the eastern portions of Colorado and New Mexico. Topsoil that had taken a thousand years per inch to build suddenly blew away in only minutes. One journalist traveling through the devastated region dubbed it the "Dust Bowl." This American Experience film presents the remarkable story of the determined people who clung to their homes and way of life, enduring drought, dust, disease--even death--for nearly a decade. Less well-known than those who sought refuge in California, typified by the Joad family in John Steinbeck's The Grape of Wrath, the Dust Bowlers who stayed overcame an almost unbelievable series of calamities and disasters.

Notes

Title from container.

Originally broadcast on PBS as an episode of American experience in 1990.

This edition released as part of a five-disc set called The 1930s.

Special features: Printable materials for educators ; access to the American Experience Web site.