A compelling chronicle of the worst manmade ecological disaster in American history.

In this astounding two-part film, universally acclaimed documentary maker Ken Burns recalls one of the darkest periods in American history in his own inimitable style.

THE DUST BOWL tells the story of what happened when a frenzied wheat boom on America s southern Plains, followed by a decade-long drought during the 1930s, nearly swept away the breadbasket of the nation.

It was a time when menacing black blizzards killed farmers' crops and livestock, threatened the lives of their children and forced thousands of desperate families to pick up and move somewhere else in a desperate plea to survive.

Over four compelling hours, vivid interviews with more than two dozen survivors of those hard times, combined with dramatic photographs and seldom seen movie footage, bring to life stories of incredible human suffering and equally inconceivable human perseverance. As well as providing a detailed historical account of the period, THE DUST BOWL is also a morality tale about our relationship with the land that sustains us a lesson we ignore at our peril.