I finished watching it. I'll never look at this part of the US in the same way ever again! I highly recommend it. The themes aren't as "sexy" as the speakeasies and gangsters of the Prohibition, it does rely more heavily on family members who came directly out of that period, and is a couple of hours shorter. This time came directly after Prohibition, and the swath of land it encompassed went as high as South Dakota! Though OK was the epicenter so to speak, with the panhandle and part of KS being extremely bad as well.
I recall reading a book about the Dustbowl and one story really hit me as to how apocalyptic it must have seemed. Apparently the huge advancing dust clouds generated a huge static charge that got to you before the cloud. Drivers in cars way far from anywhere found that the static shorted out their ignitions, stopping the car. Their only recourse at that point was to push the car into a position where they could turn it over on its side and hide in the lee behind the car until the dust storm passed. It must have seemed like the end of the world.
The worst kinds made everything pitch black. Nearer the end, there were some photos caught of a town becoming engulfed as the storm approached, and when it hit, the photo was pretty much pitch black.
One of the stories that really made an impression was the man who wanted to make sure that his family member (I think nephew) made it home ok because he had gone out shortly before the storm hit. Phone lines were totally incapacitated during the storms, and the only way he could physically make it over to check on him was to slide on his belly, using his elbows for locomotion, for I think it was 5 or 6 blocks. Good, nephew made it home, time to elbow back to his own family.
Ken Burns is an incredible film maker. I want to see this.
I'm wondering how the actual footage (if any) compares to what I imagined while reading the Grapes of Wrath. One of those books I have to read a couple of times a year.
Interesting you mention that. They had a very short bit on him, with a photo too. Apparently a newspaper coworker was sharing all her notes and research with him, as she was spending a lot of time at the camps where all the displaced "Okies" were going. They quoted him as saying something like they should burn the camps down. The reporter's name was Sanora Babb. A publisher was so impressed with her notes, that she was invited to NYC I think it was to talk about writing a book. By the time this was about to happen, Steinbeck beat her to the bunch with the book you speak of; it was too similar in content to Babb's, for the publisher to go for it. IOW, I think the documentary was implying that Steinbeck's success may have been greatly indebted to Sanora Babb, and that maybe it was she who should have deserved great success with this theme.
Her book was finally* published in 2006, although it was supposed to be published in 1939* before Steinbeck beat her to the punch. Here it is, read the description:
Amazon.com: Whose Names Are Unknown: A Novel (9780806137124): Sanora Babb, Lawrence R. Rodgers: Books
