What We're Reading: Laurie

The Dust Bowl Through the Lens: How Photography Revealed and Helped Remedy a National Disaster by Martin W. Sandler.

Between 1930 and 1936 more than 100 million acres of fertile land turned to dust. The land of the southern plains suffered from overplowing and the overgrazing of sheep and cattle. Not only did overzealous farming practices decimate the fertile soil, but the land also suffered the greatest drought in American history with record heat and high winds. These high winds swept across the prairie bringing enormous clouds of dust which settled on the land like drifts of snow. This book is full of famous, heartbreaking photos of the people who suffered poverty, hunger and homelessness due to this environmental disaster. Out of this disaster came a new form of storytelling-photojournalism. This medium changed the way information was released and enabled people all over the country to become informed of the suffering and devistation caused by these "Black Blizzards".