5.1: The Dust Bowl
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The Dust Bowl refers to the worst drought in American history. It struck areas of Oklahoma, Texas, Kansas, Colorado, and New Mexico from approximately 1932 to 1940. While this area had undergone frequent droughts to this point in time, what made this one so bad was the over-farming of marginal areas during the boom times during and following World War I. Grasses that had once kept the soil from flying when rain was sparse had been plowed under for wheat. Thus, they were no longer there when drought returned to the region. The result was a devastating environmental and human catastrophe, as massive dust storms enveloped the region. As their farmland disappeared and with the country in the midst of the Great Depression, farm families left the region in large numbers, seeking a better life elsewhere.
Contents
- 1.1: The Labor Question
- 1.2: Edward Atkinson: “The Service Which Capital Renders When Employed by Labor” (1886)
- 1.3: Wendell Phillips: “The Labor Question” Speech (1872)
- 1.4: Questions
- 2.1: Native Americans in the American West
- 2.2: Sarah Winnemucca Hopkins: Life Among the Piutes (1883)
- 2.3: Theodore Roosevelt: An Autobiography (1913)
- 2.4: Questions
- 3.1: Urbanization: The Physical Form and Moral Condition of Cities
- 3.2: Louis Sullivan: The Autobiography of an Idea (1923)
- 3.3: James W. Buel: Mysteries and Miseries of America’s Great Cities (1883)
- 3.4: Questions
- 4.1: The Pure Food and Drug Act
- 4.2: Harvey Wiley: Letter to the Editor of the Wine Trade Review (1906)
- 4.3: Hiram Walker & Sons, Ltd.: “A Plot against the People” (1911)
- 4.4: Questions
- 5.1: The Dust Bowl
- 5.2: John Steinbeck: “Starvation under the Orange Trees” (1938)
- 5.3: Frank J. Taylor: “California’s Grapes of Wrath” (1939)
- 5.4: Questions
- 6.1: The New Deal and the Role of Government
- 6.2: Franklin D. Roosevelt: Second Inaugural Address (1937)
- 6.3: Charles I. Dawson: “The President Has Made the Issue” (1936)
- 6.4: Questions
- 7.1: Segregation in the North and South
- 7.2: W.E.B. Du Bois: “Segregation in the North” (1934)
- 7.3: Victor H. Green: The Negro Motorist “Green Book” (1940)
- 7.4: Questions
- 8.1: Anti-Communism
- 8.2: Chamber of Commerce of the United States: “Communist Infiltration in the United States: Its Nature and How to Combat It” (1946)
- 8.3: Ryland W. Crary and Gerald L. Steibel: “How You Can Teach About Communism” (1951)
- 8.4: Questions
- 9.1: The Modern Women’s Movement
- 9.2: Casey Hayden and Mary King: “Sex and Caste” (1965)
- 9.3: Betty Friedan: Commencement Speech to Smith College Graduates (1981)
- 9.4: Questions
- 10.1: The Generation Gap and the Vietnam War
- 10.2: Lyndon B. Johnson: “Peace without Conquest” Speech about Vietnam (7 April 1965)
- 10.3: Raymond Anthony Mungo: Anti-War Speech (1967)
- 10.4: Questions
- 11.1: The Gay Rights Movement
- 11.2: Anita Bryant Is Hit by a Pie (1977)
- 11.3: Harvey Milk: Gay Freedom Day Speech (1978)
- 11.4: Questions
- 12.1: Globalization and the North American Free Trade Agreement
- 12.2: 12.2 Ross Perot at the Third Presidential Debate (1992)
- 12.3: Bill Clinton: “Remarks on the Signing of NAFTA” (1993)
- 12.4: Questions