Volume 11 , Issue 45

Dust Bowl Book

There is another "Dust Bowl" news article out of the New York Times that one of our readers shared with us. It is Blowin' In the Wind, by JESSICA BRUDER -- about two young adult histories and a graphic novel about the worst ecological disaster in American history.

It begins, ?Years of Dust: The Story of the Dust Bowl,? Albert Marrin?s engrossing account of what was arguably the worst ecological disaster in American history. When a severe drought struck the Midwest in 1931, farmers had been churning up the Great Plains for more than half a century. Without native grasses to anchor the topsoil, fields crumbled to dust. Millions of acres of arable land were swept away in black blizzards. Hungry families headed west, pinning their hopes on California. Dust blew so far east, it settled on the White House lawn.

The article also mentions, "Marrin?s writing is particularly evocative when he turns an anthropological eye to the 2.5 million migrants ? the so-called ?Okies? and ?tin-can tourists? ? who were driven from their homes and became ?refugees in their own land.?"

?Years of Dust? also puts young readers in the shoes of Dust Bowl survivors with heartbreaking photos that focus on children: three boys in overalls crammed into the backseat of a car in Muskogee County, Okla.; a little girl holding her mother?s hand as they step over a drainage ditch in a California squatter camp.

The book?s final chapter, ?Future Dust Bowls,? warns readers about man-made environmental disasters on the horizon, including desertification in China and the Amazon. This section is invaluable; it links the Dust Bowl to ?present-day problems.
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