Dust Bowl: The Southern Plains in the 1930s

Donald Worster

Jun 2017 · Tantor Media Inc · Narrated by Sean Runnette

About this audiobook

In the mid-1930s, North America's Great Plains faced one of the worst man-made environmental disasters in world history. Donald Worster's classic chronicle of the devastating years between 1929 and 1939 tells the story of the Dust Bowl in ecological as well as human terms. Twenty-five years after his book helped to define the new field of environmental history, Worster shares his more recent thoughts on the subject of the land and how humans interact with it. In a new afterword, he links the Dust Bowl to current political, economic, and ecological issues-including the American livestock industry's exploitation of the Great Plains, and the ongoing problem of desertification, which has now become a global phenomenon. He reflects on the state of the plains today and the threat of a new dustbowl. He outlines some solutions that have been proposed, such as "the Buffalo Commons," where deer, antelope, bison, and elk would once more roam freely, and suggests that we may yet witness a Great Plains where native flora and fauna flourish while applied ecologists show farmers how to raise food on land modeled after the natural prairies that once existed.

Ratings and reviews

The book gives an incredibly thorough detailed account of the Dust Bowl. However, the book has a few parts where the author gets terribly political, preaches his political stances, and it really turned me off from the book. He began to push his scientific views on farming instead of sticking to educating on the dust bowl. Although I don't believe his views are wrong, I didn't buy a book on politics so I don't want to hear the political views of the author. Would of been a 5/5 if he'd just not babbled on politics.

About the author

Donald Worster is Honorary Director of the Center for Ecological History at the University of Remnin of China and Hall Distinguished Professor of American History Emeritus at the University of Kansas. He is the author of many books, including A Passion for Nature, A River Running West, and The Wealth of Nature.

Sean Runnette, a multiple AudioFile Earphones Award winner, has also produced several Audie Award-winning audiobooks. His film and television appearances include Two If by Sea, Copland, Sex and the City, Law & Order, Third Watch, and lots and lots of commercials.