Unrestrained Capitalism

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One of the most terrible man-made environmental disasters, the Dust Bowl affected not only the people of the southern plains, but also affected the nation. Worster argued that the nation needed to take better socio-economic responsibility as well as agricultural appeasement in order to prevent a disaster like this from happening again. “The ultimate meaning of the dust storms in the 1930’s was that America as a whole, not just the plains, was badly out of balance with its natural environment.” ⁵ Worster’s environmental history book was a push to shift ecological practices which began to take hold in the late 1930’s.

Unrestrained capitalism was widely believed by Worster as a large part of the Dust Bowl. It was evidenced in his book and through his use of primary data that the industrial farming methods used in the southern plans destroyed the balance of the land with crop failure, desertification and the dust storms; nevertheless, Worster also maintained that the unverifiable farming practices at this juncture of our history was due to the American capitalistic ideas of the time. Since many settlers in the plains looked at land as investment or asset they sometimes denied the signs that the land was being exploited. Many believed getting one more season of a crop was limitless, but neglected to see the limits of the land. In some instances Worster makes the settlers of the plains look unintelligent by their farming practices, but one needs to remember that these people, mostly of lower education did not have many choices but to farm the land. In the converse, Worster does make the point about ecology and land use and how misuse of the land caused disaster, which brings home the idea that our land has limits and each of us must help in finding ways to stop the practice of destroying our ecosystem.

Unrestrained Capitalism was manifested in America as aggressive misuse of the land which inflicted devastation on the environmental balance and people of the southern plains in the 20th century. Based on this historical era, devastation occurred which in turn brought about farming changes, the drought ending, and a return to life as usual; however, it took the contribution of the Federal government and many changes in the laws and training activities to teach and aid the public to get to the needed recovery. It is noteworthy that historical data can teach us today how not to act or react to crisis; however, in the instance of farming in the plains, it is not evidenced that America has changed its culture of capitalism, despite changes in farming techniques. There continues to be high yield repetitive use crops and continued resource development of our land, thus one day the resource may dwindle due to another disaster. Worster “Capitalism cannot fill that need; all its drives and motives tend to push the other way, toward overrunning a fragile earth.” ⁶

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Notes

- Worster, Donald. Dust Bowl: The Southern Plains in the 1930s, 25th Anniversary Edition (New York: Oxford University Press Inc., 2004) , Kindle Edition eBook, Location 117.

- Ibid., 253.

- Ibid., 164.

- Ibid., 160.

- Ibid., 775.

- Ibid., 4245.

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Bibliography

Worster, Donald. Dust Bowl: The Southern Plains in the 1930s, 25th Anniversary Edition

(New York: Oxford University Press Inc., 2004), Kindle Edition eBook, Location 117, 160, 164, 253, 775, 4245.