The Dust Bowl on PBS

Quite a cautionary tale. Required viewing, I think. One of the more interesting tidbits is the role a journalist played in the naming of the entire calamity: From the American Experience website:

The Dust Bowl got its name on April 15, 1935, the day after Black Sunday. Robert Geiger, a reporter for the Associated Press, traveled through the region and wrote the following: “Three little words achingly familiar on a Western farmer’s tongue, rule life in the dust bowl of the continent – if it rains.” The term stuck, spreading to radio broadcasts and publications, in private letters and public speeches.