The Worst Hard Time: The Untold Story of Those Who Survived the Great American Dust Bowl by Timothy Egan
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Book Reviews of The Worst Hard Time: The Untold Story of Those Who Survived the Great American Dust Bowl
Book Review: The Worst Hard Time
Summary: 5 Stars
Excellent book; if you want to know what the "Dust Bowl" was all about - how it happened, how people coped, how it affected everyday life - this is the book for you. Fascinating.Book Review: Disaster on the Great Plains
Summary: 5 Stars
There can be no more powerful, saddening cautionary tale concerning a prolonged weather event in the history of the United States than this finely written book. Whether caused by mismanagement, a decade-long drought of epic proportions, simple bad luck, or any combination of the three, the tragedy of the Dust Bowl has been concisely and passionately examined here.
Meticulously researched,THE WORST HARD TIME takes us to an area of America, and a time frame, that would not make it on the Most Scenic lists; a stripped landscape, sere and hard-hearted, peopled by diehards and those who cannot get away, trapped by circumstance and poverty. The Dust Bowl became a reality in the 1930s, after decades of poor judgment and greedy opportunists. In 1879, in the first big boom of resettlement, there were ten million acres of the Plains put under the plow. By 1930, it had escalated to 100 million; and a delicate ecosystem that the native tribes - unceremoniously removed from their homeland - had successfully managed to exist upon for thousands of years, was destroyed, never to recover. The skin of the earth, held together for eons by grama, bluestem and buffalo grass, was torn from the underlying earth, and in a drought that lasted ten years, the earth blew away in some of the most spectacular dust storms on record. Dust from the Plains settled on desks in the White House; was blown two hundred miles out to sea, to land on ships; and piled irrepressibly around and on the homes of the "nesters", as the Plains homesteaders were called.
Timothy Egan, the author of this book, brings to life a time and place that needs to be remembered, in this age of our own discussions about shortages and high prices. I cannot imagine going for even a few weeks without money coming in from a paycheck; there were people in those days who saw nothing in the way of a paycheck for more than four years. They survived on a plethora of rabbits; on innovative uses for found plants (some of them learned to eat tumbleweeds); and over the course of a long and punishing drought saw everything they had worked for and loved whittled away from them, including their children, who were brought down by "dust pneumonia", a malady caused by breathing in the ceaseless dust.
Why did they stay? Certainly some of them did not (remember the Grapes of Wrath? that was Dust Bowl related). Many attempted to migrate to California, where they discovered they were not wanted, or other places where they heard there was work. Those who stayed were an amalgam of America; immigrants who had decided that, hell or high water, this was where they would make their stand; down-and-outers who initially thought they'd found a home place and then couldn't leave because of destitution; and old-timers - cowboys and other leftovers - who couldn't imagine living anywhere else, even in very reduced circumstances.
This book should be required reading in at least any soil-conservation college course, and very nearly should be required reading in any number of other categories, from high-school level forward. It is thoughtfully constructed, and presents the technical aspects of what went wrong - and what steps were taken to correct it - along with a number of ongoing sagas of the people involved, from all levels. The pathos and heartbreak of the mothers and fathers merely trying to keep going, and to keep the dust out of the houses, at times made me want to cry. Too little was done too late for some - and the Plains are still in recovery.
Highly, highly recommended for all who like a tale of disaster well told, and for any and every history buff. One of the best books I have read in ages.
Book Review: Fascinating and Educational
Summary: 5 Stars
Timothy Egan's narration brings history alive concerning the dustbowl and the worldwide depression. His following of individual stories and towns helps to keep the story on track. It has prompted me to order another Egan book, he is such a wonderful writer.Book Review: WE didnt know it was this bad
Summary: 5 Stars
I was just a kid and I enjoyed those dust storms because they let school outBook Review: a dramatic and moving account of ordinary people
Summary: 5 Stars
This is an excellent read, full of great detail. There were many things I had no idea about the dust bowl, such as the dust pneumonia and the dramatic examples of static electricity (could it really have killed a rooster?!) It was heart breaking to read about these hard working people devastated by the havoc of the depression and the environmental problems. I found the account of the individuals quite moving. I could not help but think of the parallels to global warming in the descriptions of the man made nature of the dust storms, arising as an effect of the removal of native grasses. I loved the individuals whose stories the author followed.