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Thursday, November 27, 2008

 

RP: 11 Dust Bowl

For the 11th lecture we watched two videos covering the Dust Bowl on the Great Plains, The Plow that Broke the Great Plains and Rain for the Earth. Each video took a very different approach explaining how people dealt with the issues surrounding the Dust Bowl. “The Plow that Broke the Great Plains” was the first video we watched it had a darker feel to it and covered the group of people who decided to move out further west to try to find work. It portrayed the Great Plains as almost uninhabitable during the Dust Bowl, showing people abandoning their homes and actually encouraged people to go west to get help from government camps. The second film that we watched was “Rain for the Earth” and it showed the Dust Bowl from a slightly more optimistic perspective. “Rain on the Earth” focused on what people from the Great Plains were doing to survive through the tough times. Things such as shifting from commercial farming to raising animals and planting small gardens. Although these were profitable the changes allowed for many family to fight their way through the bad times. After watching the two videos I have greater respect for the people who managed to fight through the Dust Bowl and pick themselves up after the Dust Bowl. I knew that it was a tough era, but I don't think that before I quite knew the total devastation that the drought caused. On a side note I find it very interesting that both films exist today in their either shortened or unfinished forms, I wonder what the exact reasons for this are.

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