The will to conservation: A Burkeian analysis of dust bowl rhetoric and American farming motives

Abstract

The 1930s Dust Bowl has been accepted as the worst environmental disaster in United States history. Analysis of the rhetoric of agricultural conservationists which focuses on this issue reveals that its potential for promoting environmentally sound land‐use practices was limited. This essay relies on Kenneth Burke's theory of identification and pentadic ratios to identify the hierarchy of motives associated with land use. I argue that the vulnerability of conservation efforts to competing forces was largely a function of that hierarchy and suggests that an action‐oriented perspective would be more conducive to responsible land use.