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The Worst Hard Time: The Untold Story of Those Who Survived the Great American Dust Bowl
by: Timothy Egan

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Binding: Paperback
Dewey Decimal Number: 978.032
EAN: 9780618773473
ISBN: 0618773479
Label: Mariner Books
Manufacturer: Mariner Books
Number Of Items: 1
Number Of Pages: 352
Publication Date: September 01, 2006
Publisher: Mariner Books
Sales Rank: 633
Studio: Mariner Books

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Editorial Review:

Product Description:
The dust storms that terrorized the High Plains in the darkest years
of the Depression were like nothing ever seen before or since.
Timothy Egan's critically acclaimed account rescues this iconic chapter
of American history from the shadows in a tour de force of historical
reportage. Following a dozen families and their communities through
the rise and fall of the region, Egan tells of their desperate attempts to
carry on through blinding black dust blizzards, crop failure, and the
death of loved ones. Brilliantly capturing the terrifying drama of catastrophe,
Egan does equal justice to the human characters who become
his heroes, 'the stoic, long-suffering men and women whose lives he
opens up with urgency and respect' (New York Times).

In an era that promises ever-greater natural disasters, The Worst
Hard Time is 'arguably the best nonfiction book yet' (Austin Statesman
Journal) on the greatest environmental disaster ever to be visited
upon our land and a powerful cautionary tale about the dangers of
trifling with nature.

Customer Reviews

Average Rating: out of 5 stars

Rating:

- Choked Up
Hurricanes come and go along America's Atlantic and Gulf Coasts. Property and lives are destroyed, but often rebuilt. There's some comfort in knowing that indefatigable Mother Nature caused the damage.

But in the plains and panhandles of Nebraska, Colorado, Kansas, Oklahoma, and Texas, an unprecented and unyielding natural disaster, rooted in the uprooting of native grasses in the name of progress, blew dirt into peoples' lives for almost the full decade of the '30s, killing thousands, ruining countless businesses, and emptying towns. It came to be known as the Dust Bowl, and Timothy Egan's book "The Worst Hard Times" tells the story via the recollections of a few octa- and nonagenarians who were there and lived through it.

Egan's narratives built around these recollections are heartbreaking. I could only read two chapters at a time without getting choked up emotionally as the denizens ... Read More

Rating:

- A must read for history buffs!
Fabulous story -- makes you feel like you're living the life... Also, makes you appreciate what we have today!

Rating:

- The American dust bowl and the grit and gumption of those who will never forget
Subtitled "The Untold Story of Those Who Survived the Great American Dust Bowl", this 2006 non-fiction account of this American tragedy is historical writing at its best. The author is a Pulitizer Prize winning reporter for the New York Times. I loved his simple but powerful writing style which had a touch of literary description that kept me fascinated throughout its 312 pages.

Once upon a time the Great Plains was grassland. For thousands of years it was a place where buffalo and bison grazed. The land is flat, the winds strong, there is little rain, and the variation in temperature extreme. There was no rich soil under the grass. In the early part of the 20th century the buffalo was gone but there were ranches where cattle grazed. But through a combination of factors, including the rapid expansion of the railroads, the government gave away small parcels of this land for farming. This was a ... Read More

Rating:

- 80 million acres stripped of their topsoil, end of agricultural free market economics, and birth of the welfare state
1. In 1930, 256 banks had failed and the cry was "where did our money go?" Oil prices for a barrel dropped from $1.43 to 10 cents. The economy was a pile of glue.

2. By Sep 1929, 1.5 million people were out of work. In 1930, 1,350 banks failed, going under with $853 million in deposits. The next year, 2,294 banks failed. In 1931, the Bank of the United States in New York with two million dollars defaulted. When the bank defaulted, twelve million jobs were lost or 25 percent of the work force.

3. In 1931, 28,000 business closed doors, both private and corporate. Money was not circulating. When the banks closed people scourged for food. People were starving. At the same time wheat was being piled up and wasted. On the Texas Panhandle, two million acres had been turned to sod. The wheat came in at 250 million bushels. Farmers were desperate to pay debt, but slowly bleeding out, ... Read More

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