"Texas, 1934. Millions are out of work and a drought has broken the Great Plains. Farmers are fighting to keep their land and their livelihoods as the crops are failing, the water is drying up, and dust threatens to bury them all. One of the darkest periods of the Great Depression, the Dust Bowl era, has arrived with a vengeance. In this uncertain and dangerous time, Elsa Martinelli-like so many of her neighbors-must make an agonizing choice: fight...

Presents an oral history of the dust storms that devastated the Great Plains during the Depression, following several families and their communities in their struggle to persevere despite the devastation.

Photographs capture the horrific conditions of this national disaster, the struggles of the people who stayed to save their land, and the sorrows of those who were forced to move as a result of this catastrophe.

Offers a review of the events that led up to and took place during this natural disaster in the Great Plains during the 1930s, and discusses the changes that were instituted in farming and land conservation as a result of it.

Delves into the Stock Market Crash of 1929 and how it affected people, how the American public worked together to get through the massive hardships, and how the economy recovered with World War II. Examine the changes that swept the shaken nation during the first year - from the landslide victory of FDR in 1932 to Dust Bowl farmers. Americans sought release from the hard times wherever they could find it - from marathon dancing to going to the movies....