---
product_id: 3693807
title: "Dust Bowl: The Southern Plains in the 1930s"
brand: "donald worster"
price: "€ 36.83"
currency: EUR
in_stock: true
reviews_count: 12
url: https://www.desertcart.fi/products/3693807-dust-bowl-the-southern-plains-in-the-1930s
store_origin: FI
region: Finland
---

# Dust Bowl: The Southern Plains in the 1930s

**Brand:** donald worster
**Price:** € 36.83
**Availability:** ✅ In Stock

## Quick Answers

- **What is this?** Dust Bowl: The Southern Plains in the 1930s by donald worster
- **How much does it cost?** € 36.83 with free shipping
- **Is it available?** Yes, in stock and ready to ship
- **Where can I buy it?** [www.desertcart.fi](https://www.desertcart.fi/products/3693807-dust-bowl-the-southern-plains-in-the-1930s)

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## Description

Dust Bowl: The Southern Plains in the 1930s

## Images

![Dust Bowl: The Southern Plains in the 1930s - Image 1](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/716Y7yDaDXL.jpg)

## Customer Reviews

### ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ 5.0 out of 5 stars







  
  
    Non-sustainable farming hurts everyone
  

*by L***R on Reviewed in the United States on May 11, 2017*

THE IMAGE OF THE BOOK IS INCORRECT—CORRECT IMAGE IS ATTACHED. My farm is in Morton County, Kansas in the center of the Dust Bowl.  We are making the same mistakes now as farmers did back in the thirties.  "In the thirties....Planners demanded fresh thinking about traditional property rights of the individual [when] they threatened the community's welfare.  Among the goals of this new agricultural conservation were removing excess marginal acreage from crop production, preventing soil erosion through improved agronomic practices, rural zoning and other grassroots regulatory action, solving chronic farm poverty, and bringing the science of ecology into resource management" (Worster 186).  My farm has been in the Federal Soil Bank since the late 1990s, and we planted strains of drought-resistant grass on it.  The problem is that other farmers in the area have drilled deep wells into the Ogallala aquifer and are pumping it dry even though the aquifer lies under everyone's land.  One solution could be to develop the area for  wind and solar energy but, even though Morton County gets more wind than anywhere else in the state, and high numbers of sunny days, entrenched interests prevent the development of a modern, new electric grid.  They prefer to burn dirty coal and drain the fragile aquifer (it took a million years for nature to form it---at the current rate of depletion it will probably be gone in 50 years).  Want to understand more about the Southern Plains culture--read this book.

### ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ 5.0 out of 5 stars







  
  
    Not quite grasping others' response to this book
  

*by P***A on Reviewed in the United States on February 22, 2011*

I'm only commenting here because I have read and enjoyed this book and am not at all grasping some of the comments about it on these pages.First, for a book of American environmental history, it is hardly "dry."  The writing is powerful and engaging.  But it's a history book.  Worster takes us into some of the analysis of why he blames those he blames for the problem, and yes that means talking about some pretty mundane documents and proceedings.  I think he does a truly great job of keeping it interesting.Then there is the "Marxism" issue.  Some commenters above suggest that he somehow urges a Soviet-style reform.  That is just plain idiotic and wrong.  His "Marxism" is simply a choice to examine the ways capitalism -- the desire to encourage and promote markets -- effected and promoted the dust bowl conditions.  That's about as far as it goes.  There is no homage paid to Lenin in these pages.  No call for "Socialist controls."  It's just history.

### ⭐⭐⭐⭐ 4.0 out of 5 stars







  
  
    The Archetype of Declensionist Environmental History
  

*by T***E on Reviewed in the United States on March 3, 2015*

Dust Bowl is an undeniable classic of environmental history. Donald Worster’s synthesis of ecology and social history set a precedent for the burgeoning field when the book was published in 1979. And as a document of “one of the worst… ecological blunders in history” (p. 4), Dust Bowl reads like a necessary cautionary tale from a wise elder.Yet, for all its thorough analysis, vivid imagery, and scholarly importance, Dust Bowl is often distractingly heavy-handed (Mind you—this review is coming from as staunch an environmentalist as you will meet.). It is telling that the book’s introductory quote comes from Karl Marx, with whom Worster shared a penchant for historical fatalism. Turn-of-the-century capitalism, Worster would argue, was (and in many ways still is) on a collision course with the natural limits of ecology, and this inevitable disaster manifested most clearly in the “Great American Desert” (p. 81) during the 1930s. But the notion of Culture, to which Worster points as the explanatory variable in our downfall—variously, a “capitalist ethos” (p. 96), or a set of “bourgeois values” (p. 136)—leaves no room for human agency and leaves this reader wondering: Are we looking at the issue critically or just commiserating? At best, Worster’s line of reasoning is accurate but extremely depressing. At worst, it is nihilistic and somewhat offensive (Note how often he uses the word “cling” in regards to traditional practices.). Indeed, Worster cautions in his preface that his argument “will not be acceptable to many plainsmen” (p. vii). I would take that sentiment further and suggest that it may not be acceptable to really anyone who has hope for the future.Since the publication of Dust Bowl, environmental historians have been engaged in a delicate tap dance with the most pressing issue facing our species: environmental degradation. Worster chose to focus on our most egregious ecological transgression and thus succeeded in demonstrating where we have gone spectacularly wrong. However, if, upon reflection, we are left at a loss for who “we” really are—except as an expression of some nebulous, overbearing idea of economics and Culture—then we would do well to reassess or perhaps look elsewhere.

## Frequently Bought Together

- Dust Bowl: The Southern Plains in the 1930s
- Changes in the Land, Revised Edition: Indians, Colonists, and the Ecology of New England
- NATURES METROPOLIS

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*Product available on Desertcart Finland*
*Store origin: FI*
*Last updated: 2026-02-21*