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Lecture 11, It Looked So Awful Black , was about the Dust Bowl during the 1930's. Mr. Isern started the lecture out with some terms that people who experienced the Dust Bowl used, such as "It looked like Revelations," or "it was darker than dark." After the topic was introduced, we watched two films about the Dust Bowl. The first one,, titled The Plow That Broke the Plains showed the progress of farmers spreading over the Plains, and how a drought could dramatically change that. The film made it look like farmers were overambitious and plowed too much land, and that they should have known better. It does however show that all of the people leaving the Plains for the West Coast needed help, and it was trying to convince everyone to leave and start fresh somewhere else. The second film, Rain for the Earth had a much more positive and hopeful view about farmers on the Plains. It still shows how terrible the Dust Bowl was, noting that there was barely enough food for even grasshoppers. The thing I found most interesting about this film was the importance of sheep. I had never known how important they could actually be in a time like that, since you can use both the meat and their wool. Both of these films showed how terrible the Dust Bowl was, but I think Rain for the Earth didn't make the farmers think it was their fault for plowing up too much land. It had a more hopeful outlook and could cheer up the whole country, not make it more depressed.