[tylerhenrycarl]

I am reading Donal Worster’s Dust Bowl: The Southern Plains in the 1930s. He argues capitalism caused the Dust Bowl. So far, his argument is very weak. It looks like he is actually arguing ignorance of nature’s capabilities and the technology of the time caused the Dust Bowl.

But, I am very ignorant on the subject of the Dust Bowl. I am wondering what other people see as the cause of the Dust Bowl.

Edit:If the dust bowl is mentioned in one of the lectures, please tell me. I have not gotten to the lectures on the Great Depression yet.

[dardner]

Hello TylerHCarl,

I was just checking wikipedia and couldn’t help note the irony of the dust bowl stemming from government incentives and false theories of climatology.
It will be interesting to see who will be blamed for future disasters caused by governments and their federally funded research cartels.

While it could be stated that the technological improvements that made such large spread land cultivation possible, were a result of capitalism. It does not change the fact of why so many people were farming in an area once thought to be ; from wikipedia,

region in which the Dust Bowl occurred was thought unsuitable for European-style agriculture; the region was known as the Great American Desert. The lack of surface water and timber made the region less attractive than other areas for pioneer settlement and agriculture.

[tylerhenrycarl]

Thank you for the reply, osgood

This subject is actually much more interesting than I thought. I find it idiotic how Worster puts 95% of the dust bowl on capitalism and 5% on drought. I will make sure to mention how he solely focuses on capitalism and nothing else within my book review (I have to read this for my college course).

[Author]

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