Bob Dylan's ancient adage about not needing a weatherman to know which way the wind blows would have been an especially apt lament during the Dust Bowl era, of the federal government, and faster than you can say "bailout," farm subsidies, WRA work relief, and soil conservation campaigns brought the Dust Bowl epoch to an end. Highly recommended. Aud: J, H, P. (W. Pierce)when "black blizzards" of windswept topsoil billowing as high as five miles turned the southern plains into a wasteland. This compelling documentary dishes the dirt on the rampant greed that initially lured farmers to the region, and the pillage mindset (seeded by record-high wheat prices) that propelled overcultivation of the dust-barrier virgin grasslands. Somber memories of eked existence and ultra-poverty are related by survivors of the devastating decade, which is rendered in stark chiaroscuro by '30s expressionistic still and live action photography. One historically interesting archival newsclip features a "rabbit drive" in which an Old Testament-like blight of jackrabbits is corralled and clubbed to death by wrathful Dust Bowlers. Eventually, even nature out of whack comes under the aegis
Surviving the Dust Bowl
(1998) 60 min. $19.98 ($49.95 w/PPR). PBS Video. Color cover. ISBN: 0-7806-2208-1. Vol. 14, Issue 1
Surviving the Dust Bowl
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