To view the full experience of this website, please download and install latest Adobe Flash Player version.

The Dust Bowl chronicles the worst man-made ecological disaster in American history, in which the frenzied wheat boom of the Great Plow-Up, followed by a decade-long drought during the 1930s nearly swept away the breadbasket of the nation.

Visit Ken Burns on PBS.

Visit the The Dust Bowl website

Funding is provided by Bank of America, Corporation for Public Broadcasting, The Arthur Vining Davis Foundations, National Endowment for the Humanities, The Rockefeller Foundation, Wallace Genetic Foundation and members of The Better Angels Society, including the Dana A. Hamel Family Charitable Trust and Robert and Beverly Grappone. Support programming like The Dust Bowl through your local PBS station.

The Dust Bowl
Previews
10 VIDEOS

The Dust Bowl, Part II: Reaping the Whirlwind - Preview
0:30 Air Date 04/30/13

A Storm is Coming
0:20 Air Date 11/19/12

The Dust Bowl Preview
1:43 Air Date 11/18/12

"Inside the Megastorm" followed by "The Dust Bowl"
0:30 Air Date 11/18/12

The Dust Bowl - Preview
0:30 Air Date 11/18/12

The Dust Bowl: "End of the world's coming" tease
0:20 Air Date 11/18/12

The Dust Bowl: "Evil" tease
0:20 Air Date 11/18/12

The Dust Bowl: "Just like midnight" tease
0:20 Air Date 11/18/12

The Dust Bowl: "Suffocating blackness" tease
0:20 Air Date 11/18/12

Join Ken Burns on YouTube for a Live Discussion
0:57 Air Date 11/15/12
Shorts
14 VIDEOS

Sanora's Return
3:26 Air Date 12/10/12

Tex Pace
5:08 Air Date 12/10/12

Arthur Rothstein
3:00 Air Date 11/19/12

Caroline Henderson
2:35 Air Date 11/19/12

Lessons
4:54 Air Date 11/19/12

Photographers of the Dust Bowl
4:41 Air Date 11/19/12

Sanora Babb
1:16 Air Date 11/19/12

You Gave Us Beer, Now Give Us Water
00:00 Air Date 11/19/12

The Dust Bowl Intro
2:07 Air Date 11/19/12

Uncovering the Dust Bowl
5:55 Air Date 11/19/12

Woody Guthrie: Okies
2:19 Air Date 11/19/12

Woody Guthrie: The Great Dust Storm
2:17 Air Date 11/19/12
+ MORE SHORTS