Dust Bowl Through the Lens: How Photography Revealed and Helped Remedy a National Disaster Book

The Dust Bowl was a time of hardship and disaster. The worst ecological disaster in our nation’s history turned more than 100 million acres of fertile land almost completely to dust. Hundreds of thousands of people were forced to seek new homes and opportunities thousands of miles away, while millions more chose to stay and battle nature to save their land. These terrible repercussions from the Dust Bowl contributed to the Great Depression, which impacted the entire country.

FDR’s New Deal army of photographers took to the roads during this national crisis to document the human struggle of the proud people of the plains. Their pictures spoke a thousand words, and a new form a storytelling—photojournalism—was born. These talented cameramen and women used photographs to inform the rest of the nation and bring about much-needed change. With the help of iconic images from Dorothea Lange, Walker Evans, Arthur Rothstein, and many more, Martin W. Sandler tells the story of this man-made natural disaster and these troubling economic times, ultimately showing how a nation can endure its darkest days through extraordinary courage and human spirit.

VOYA

This powerful photo-essay demonstrates how the dynamics of economics, ecology, artistic talent and personal compassion transformed photography into an information/ persuasion tool to effect social change. With text and full-page photos supplemented by smaller, clarifying images, Sandler begins with the boom of the 1930 wheat harvest and the automation and optimism that produced it and then follows with the 1931- 1937 Dust Bowl that inspired photographers to record rural devastation and the massive migration to California. He highlights photographers such as Dorothea Lange and Arthur Rothstein and the talents like Woody Guthrie, John Steinbeck, and Will Rogers that their images inspired. He illustrates the photographers' success by citing the "new" Life and Look magazines that with those powerful Dust Bowl images, influenced a government and nation to form migrant camps, the Civilian Conservation Corps, and the Soil Conservation Service. The Further Reading and Surfing suggestions include excellent young adult titles as well as sources to satisfy a maturing interest in both the period and media. This title is an inspiring and involving experience for middle school through adult audiences and, like the early photo journals and Sandler's previous award-winning Lincoln Through the Lens (Walker, 2008/VOYA December 2008), will spark interest in history and social issues. It is a treasure trove for social studies, English, art, science, or music teachers who are introducing a unit or a work related to the Great Depression. With a broad lens, Sandler emphasizes that the images and the people who record them are an integral part of social change. Reviewer: Lucy Schall