Introduction

The Internet Resources

Dust Bowl and Drought

• About the Dust Bowl - The Dust Bowl of the 1930s lasted about a decade. Its primary area of impact was on the southern Plains. There is a 'Time Line' of the Dust Bowl at this site.

• The Drought - The drought hit first in the eastern part of the country in 1930. In 1931, it moved toward the west. By 1934 it had turned the Great Plains into a desert.

New Deal

• The New Deal - The New Deal Network is an educational guide to the Great Depression of the 1930s. The New Deal Network is sponsored by the Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt Institute and the Institute for Learning Technologies at Teachers College/Columbia University. NDN is funded in part through a grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities.

People and Events

• People and Events of the Great Depression - The Great Depression and the New Deal changed forever the relationship between Americans and their government. Government involvement and responsibility in caring for the needy and regulating the economy came to be expected.

• The Migrant Experience - Although the Dust Bowl included many Great Plains states, the migrants were generically known as 'Okies,' referring to the approximately 20 percent who were from Oklahoma. The migrants represented in Voices from the Dust Bowl came primarily from Oklahoma, Texas, Arkansas, and Missouri. Most were of Anglo-American descent with family and cultural roots in the poor rural South.

• Videos - America in the 20th Century The Great Depression The Dust Bowl History in Focus 1930-1939

Background Information

• The Great Depression - Just about everythig is here. The Great Depression is the period of history that followed 'Black Thursday', the stock market crash of Thursday, October 24, 1929. The events in the United States triggered a world-wide depression, which led to deflation and a great increase in unemployment.