This paper is an extensive history of agricultural protectionism in the United States, with an emphasis on the Dust Bowl conditions of the 1930s. This essay specifically examines the shifts and turns of American values in relation to American Plains geography, and how these values have shaped public policy. In this analysis of this history, the author draws parallels between contemporary policy and American agricultural geography, and provides a critique of "moral geography" in assessing the relationship between geography and culture. 32 pgs. 85 sources.