American Experience: Surviving the Dust Bowl DVD

I saw this show on PBS, and then I wanted the DVD to watch it again and show my grandkids.

I use this dvd in my geology class in the unit I due about erosion and mass wasting. The show points out how poor farming practices combined with a long stretch of bad weather resulted in such a disaster. I use the video to discuss the science of the as well as the social programs the dust bowl and depression spawned. The eye witness accounts are compelling. Anyone interested in depression era history will enjoy this well crafted video.

As a 7th-grade Language Arts teacher, I was anxious to capture the students interest in preparation for reading the Newbery-Award- winning novel, Out of the Dust, by Karen Hesse. Showing Surviving the Dust Bowl was the perfect vehicle! The students, who generally, and especially toward the end of the school year, exhibit a limited attention span and a tendency to sneak out their cell phones during any video presentation, were meserized by the film. Those who had been complaining that All my grandfather can ever talk about is The Great Depression! were anxious to go home and really speak to their relatives about their experiences, and equally anxious to share what they had learned with their classmates. Even more miraculous to me is the fact that not only did the students retain nearly 100% of the information from Surviving the Dust Bowl, they have exhibited a great deal of insight and empathy as we read the story of a fictional teenager enduring life in Oklahoma in 1934-35. Surviving the Dust Bowl is not only a wonderful film, its a wonderful teaching resource.

I was a teacher in West Jordan, Utah in 1999 when I first saw this video on TV. A couple of days later I called information and contacted Melt White who still lives in Dalhart, Texas. A week later I went to Dalhart to meet Melt and his family. Melt is truly every bit of a genuine person in person as he is in the video. He asked me what it was about him that made me want to come see him and I told him it was because he was honest, a trait that is becoming more and more lost every day in our society. What I found really interesting is that he went on to tell me stories of other people from all over the country coming to see him and write him letters, from New Jersey to Kentucky to Utah to California. If you like history, then you will love this video. It falls right in line with everything John Steinbeck used to write about. Todd De Baun Willcox, Arizona

I had only the vaguest idea of what the dust bowl really was like. I had no idea, until I saw this program, how utterly devastating it was for those who lived through it. I also didnt know how unnecessary it was to have happened - it was caused by bad planning and abuse of the land. I had lunch with some elderly people at my Church the Sunday after I saw it, and it was incredible to hear them talk about it -- they had lived through it, and they were glad to see a younger person acknowledge it and value their experiences. It makes clear how the Dept of Agriculture, and particularly the Soil Conservation Service, is the heroic response to this disaster. Just watch the film, and you will understand how something with the apparently boring title of Soil Conservation Service is really important.

As mentioned before: worth the investment. It re-establishes the facts as they must have been. Good DVDs quality. Thanks

From the well laid out history of agricultural development to the rich interviews of those who survived this very difficult period, this program offers the best of educational programming.

I would recomend this to everyone who was born after the thirtys. It really tells how hard my parents and many othershad it in these years.

For anyone who is a native of Oklahoma, Texas, Colorado and the Midwest region of the United States, this documentary provides a unique and intriguing glimpse of the terrible experience known as the Dust Bowl.

I used this documentary as a visual support for my middle school students while teaching the novel Out of the Dust. The students were mesmerized by the footage of just how bad it was during the dust bowl. The only negative, is I have to edit the footage of the clubbing of the rabbits. Its far too graphic for the age group I teach.