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by WalterBright 1059 days ago
How can you reconcile cheap food being unavailable food? Doesn't make any sense.

I know what food insecurity is, hunger is, and famine. Characterizing the Dust Bowl as famine is hyperbole.

As for high school history books, sorry, but LOL. They're written by committees and mostly driven by popular politics.

A novel simply isn't good enough to be a cite. Here are some of the falsehoods from TGoW:

https://www.history.com/news/10-things-you-may-not-know-abou...

Here's a cite for you: "The Forgotten Man" by Amity Shlaes. A history of the Depression, it does not mention "famine".

If you've got a cite from a real history book there was famine in the US in the 1930's, feel free to post it.

P.S. I have a copy of "AP United States History" from the "Research & Education Association, 639 pages. It has no mention of famine during the Dust Bowl.
1 comments
webnrrd2k 1059 days ago
”How can you reconcile cheap food being unavailable food? Doesn't make any sense"

I've given a brief explanation twice already. If it doesn't even make sense to you then, honestly, don't know what to say further.

As to the famine point, lets try google... The first result is as follows, from Wikipedia: ”The abandonment of homesteads and financial ruin resulting from catastrophic topsoil loss led to widespread hunger and poverty". You clearly disagree that it qualifies as famine.

This isn't a formal historical discussion, and Im not a historian. The fact of widespread hunger and poverty isn't in dispute by any reputable historian and I'm honestly not interested in debating minutia.

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WalterBright 1058 days ago
Hunger, yes, famine, no. There's a huge difference in degree. I know it's popular these days to use extreme words trying to make a point, but it isn't acceptable in a serious discussion. Wikipedia did not say "famine".

> I've given a brief explanation twice already.

Sorry, it makes no sense. What makes food cheap is abundance, not scarcity. Do you really think that if the country was gripped by famine, that FDR would have gotten away with slaughtering millions of pigs and leaving the meat to rot?

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webnrrd2k 1058 days ago
You used the word famine earlier in this tiresome little thread.

WalterBright: "The US was the first country to eliminate the specter of famine around 1800. Thanks to free markets."

It's delusional to argue that The Dust Bowl was a time of cheap and abundant food. As far as I can tell, that's your claim, but I'm not interested in discussing this further with you.

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WalterBright 1057 days ago
> You used the word famine earlier

I used it correctly, it comes from Eugene Weber's "The Western Tradition", cited earlier.

> It's delusional to argue that The Dust Bowl was a time of cheap and abundant food

I cited it. You've found no cites for famine.

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jychang 1056 days ago
https://history.iowa.gov/history/education/educator-resource...

First google search result for dust bowl famine. Government websites explicitly mention “famine”. Is the Library of Congress a good enough source for you?

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