MAIN ESSAY TOPIC
Worster presents photographs, poems, prose, and other contemporary depictions of the Dust Bowl and its effects. Do you find any of these cultural artifacts especially revealing? What do they add to Worster’s account? Do they share a common point of view about the Dust Bowl, the inhabitants, or the government?
POINTS TO INCLUDE IN THE ESSAY
What was the Dust Bowl? Where and when did it develop? Did it show the same traits at all times and in all places?
What does Worster identify as the natural causes of the Dust Bowl? What does he identify as the manmade causes? How does he connect them
How did the lives of rural folk during the Depression compare with the lives of city dwellers? Did one group appear to fare better than the other?
How did government respond to the Dust Bowl before Roosevelt? How did New Dealers respond? Did their policies affect the land and the residents of the Dust Bowl for good or ill? What evidence can be cited?