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The Resource Ken Burns The Dust Bowl

Ken Burns The Dust Bowl

Contributor
Summary
Until the arrival of European and American settlers in the late nineteenth century, the southern Plains of the United States were predominantly grasslands, the home and hunting grounds of many Native American tribes and the range of untold millions of bison. It was seldom used for farming. Bitterly cold winters, hot summers, high winds and especially low, unreliable precipitation made it unsuitable for standard agriculture. But at the start of the 1900s, offers of cheap public land attracted farmers to the region, and in World War I, in the midst of a relatively wet period, a lucrative new wheat market opened up. Advances in gasoline-powered farm machinery made production faster and easier than ever. During the 1920s, millions of acres of grasslands across the Plains were converted into wheat fields at an unprecedented rate. In 1930, with the Great Depression underway, wheat prices collapsed. Rather than follow the government's urging to cut back on production, desperate farmers harvested even more wheat in an effort to make up for their losses. Fields were left exposed and vulnerable to a drought, which hit in 1932. Once the winds began picking up dust from the open fields, they grew into dust storms of biblical proportions. Each year the storms grew more ferocious and more frequent, sweeping up millions of tons of earth, covering farms and homes across the Plains with sand, and spreading the dust across the country. Children developed often fatal "dust pneumonia," business owners unable to cope with the financial ruin committed suicide, and thousands of desperate Americans were torn from their homes and forced on the road in an exodus unlike anything the United States has ever seen. Yet The Dust Bowl is also a story of heroic perseverance against enormous odds: families finding ways to survive and hold on to their land, New Deal programs that kept hungry families afloat, and a partnership between government agencies and farmers to develop new farming and conservation methods. The Dust Bowl chronicles this critical moment in American history in all its complexities and profound human drama. It is part oral history, using compelling interviews of 26 survivors of those hard times?what will probably be the last recorded testimony of the generation that lived through the Dust Bowl. Filled with seldom seen movie footage, previously unpublished photographs, the songs of Woody Guthrie, and the observations of two remarkable women who left behind eloquent written accounts, the film is also a historical accounting of what happened and why during the 1930s on the southern Plains
Language
eng
Work
Publication
Extent
1 online resource (1 video file, approximately 114 min.)
Note
Title from title frames
Link
http://kanopy.com/node/137195
Instance
Label
Ken Burns The Dust Bowl
Title
Ken Burns The Dust Bowl
Contributor
Film director
Subject
Genre
Language
eng
Summary
Until the arrival of European and American settlers in the late nineteenth century, the southern Plains of the United States were predominantly grasslands, the home and hunting grounds of many Native American tribes and the range of untold millions of bison. It was seldom used for farming. Bitterly cold winters, hot summers, high winds and especially low, unreliable precipitation made it unsuitable for standard agriculture. But at the start of the 1900s, offers of cheap public land attracted farmers to the region, and in World War I, in the midst of a relatively wet period, a lucrative new wheat market opened up. Advances in gasoline-powered farm machinery made production faster and easier than ever. During the 1920s, millions of acres of grasslands across the Plains were converted into wheat fields at an unprecedented rate. In 1930, with the Great Depression underway, wheat prices collapsed. Rather than follow the government's urging to cut back on production, desperate farmers harvested even more wheat in an effort to make up for their losses. Fields were left exposed and vulnerable to a drought, which hit in 1932. Once the winds began picking up dust from the open fields, they grew into dust storms of biblical proportions. Each year the storms grew more ferocious and more frequent, sweeping up millions of tons of earth, covering farms and homes across the Plains with sand, and spreading the dust across the country. Children developed often fatal "dust pneumonia," business owners unable to cope with the financial ruin committed suicide, and thousands of desperate Americans were torn from their homes and forced on the road in an exodus unlike anything the United States has ever seen. Yet The Dust Bowl is also a story of heroic perseverance against enormous odds: families finding ways to survive and hold on to their land, New Deal programs that kept hungry families afloat, and a partnership between government agencies and farmers to develop new farming and conservation methods. The Dust Bowl chronicles this critical moment in American history in all its complexities and profound human drama. It is part oral history, using compelling interviews of 26 survivors of those hard times?what will probably be the last recorded testimony of the generation that lived through the Dust Bowl. Filled with seldom seen movie footage, previously unpublished photographs, the songs of Woody Guthrie, and the observations of two remarkable women who left behind eloquent written accounts, the film is also a historical accounting of what happened and why during the 1930s on the southern Plains
Cataloging source
CaSfKAN
Characteristic
videorecording
Date time place
Originally produced by PBS in 2012
http://library.link/vocab/relatedWorkOrContributorDate
1953-
http://library.link/vocab/relatedWorkOrContributorName
Burns, Ken
Runtime
113
http://library.link/vocab/subjectName
  • Depressions
  • Dust Bowl Era, 1931-1939
  • United States
Target audience
adult
Technique
live action
Label
Ken Burns The Dust Bowl
Link
http://kanopy.com/node/137195
Instantiates
Publication
Note
Title from title frames
Antecedent source
unknown
Carrier category
online resource
Carrier category code
  • cr
Carrier MARC source
rdacarrier
Configuration of playback channels
unknown
Content category
two-dimensional moving image
Content type code
  • tdi
Content type MARC source
rdacontent
Dimensions
unknown
Extent
1 online resource (1 video file, approximately 114 min.)
File format
unknown
Form of item
online
Governing access note
Available to cardholders of participating libraries only
Level of compression
unknown
Media category
  • video
  • computer
Media MARC source
  • rdamedia
  • rdamedia
Media type code
  • v
  • c
Medium for sound
other
Other physical details
digital, .flv file, sound
Publisher number
1137194
Quality assurance targets
not applicable
Reformatting quality
unknown
Sound
sound
Sound on medium or separate
sound on medium
Specific material designation
  • other
  • remote
System control number
  • (CaSfKAN)kan1137194
  • (OCoLC)908377889
  • 1129150
System details
Mode of access: World Wide Web
Video recording format
other
Label
Ken Burns The Dust Bowl
Link
http://kanopy.com/node/137195
Publication
Note
Title from title frames
Antecedent source
unknown
Carrier category
online resource
Carrier category code
  • cr
Carrier MARC source
rdacarrier
Configuration of playback channels
unknown
Content category
two-dimensional moving image
Content type code
  • tdi
Content type MARC source
rdacontent
Dimensions
unknown
Extent
1 online resource (1 video file, approximately 114 min.)
File format
unknown
Form of item
online
Governing access note
Available to cardholders of participating libraries only
Level of compression
unknown
Media category
  • video
  • computer
Media MARC source
  • rdamedia
  • rdamedia
Media type code
  • v
  • c
Medium for sound
other
Other physical details
digital, .flv file, sound
Publisher number
1137194
Quality assurance targets
not applicable
Reformatting quality
unknown
Sound
sound
Sound on medium or separate
sound on medium
Specific material designation
  • other
  • remote
System control number
  • (CaSfKAN)kan1137194
  • (OCoLC)908377889
  • 1129150
System details
Mode of access: World Wide Web
Video recording format
other

Subject

Genre

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