Migration in the 1930s: Beyond the dust bowl

Myron P. Gutmann, Daniel Brown, Angela R. Cunningham, James Dykes, Susan Hautaniemi Leonard, Jani Little, Jeremy Mikecz, Paul W. Rhode, Seth Spielman, Kenneth M. Sylvester

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

22 Scopus citations

Abstract

This paper analyzes in detail the role of environmental and economic shocks in the migration of the 1930s. The 1940 US Census of Population asked every inhabitant where they lived five years earlier, a unique source for understanding migration flows and networks. Earlier research documented migrant origins and destinations, but we will show how short-term and annual weather conditions at sending locations in the 1930s explain those flows, and how they operated through agricultural success. Beyond demographic data, we use data about temperature and precipitation, plus data about agricultural production from the agricultural census. The widely known migration literature for the 1930s describes an era of relatively low migration, with much of the migration that did occur radiating outward from the Dust Bowl region and the cotton South. Our work about the complete United States will provide a fuller examination of migration in this socially and economically important era.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)707-740
Number of pages34
JournalSocial Science History
Volume40
Issue number4
DOIs
StatePublished - 2016
Externally publishedYes

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