Ken Burns: The Dust Bowl

PRIMETIME EMMYS® 2X nominee

Season 1

THE DUST BOWL chronicles the worst man-made ecological disaster in American history, when a frenzied wheat boom on the southern Plains, followed by a decade-long drought during the 1930s, nearly swept away the breadbasket of the nation.

IMDb 8.220122 episodesTV-PG

Documentary•Historical

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S1 E1 - Episode 1: The Great Plow Up
November 17, 2012
1 h 51 min
TV-PG
In the early 20th century, homesteaders converge on the southern Plains, where wet years, rising wheat prices and World War I produce a classic boom. Then, in 1931, a decade-long drought begins, exacerbated by the Great Depression.
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S1 E2 - Episode 2: Reaping the Whirlwind
November 18, 2012
1 h 52 min
TV-PG
The crucible of dust, drought and Depression intensifies. Many people on the southern Plains give up and join a “migration of the defeated” to California. There they are branded as “Okies” and face vicious discrimination.
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