Tuesday, April 23 and 29, 9 p.m. | WKAR
Ken Burns surveys the causes of the worst human-made ecological disaster in American history in The Dust Bowl, airing over two consecutive Tuesdays.
The event occurred when 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.
The program features vivid interviews with 26 survivors of those hard times, combined with dramatic photographs and seldom-seen movie footage, that bring to life stories of incredible human suffering and equally incredible perseverance.
The documentary is also a morality tale about our relationship to the land that sustains us — a lesson we ignore at our peril.