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

In this story of the great Dust Bowl that hit the midwest in the 1930s, Timothy Egan follows the lives of a few families as they cope with this unprecedented weather situation. Unfortunately, he doesn't follow through on all of them, so with some families, we're left wondering what became of them. But his descriptions are amazing and it becomes very clear that this is not just a lot of dust that made it hard to grow anything. The problem was far greater. The dust was so thick that people actually choked and died from it. Many came down with dust pneumonia with fatal results. The static electricity could knock a man over and the spiders that came with were of biblical proportions.Eagan also spends a fair share of the book determining how this great tragedy came about. Droughts had always been a natural part of this area in America, but nothing like the dust had ever been seen before. The conclusion: Man himself created this phenomenon by farming the land at such a rate that it was impossible for it to recover. Even to this day, parts of it haven't. But whatever recovery has been made, we can thank FDR and his renewal concepts through the New Deal.It's a fascinating book and I would highly recommend it.

I don't know about you, but I knew very little about the Dust Bowl before reading this book. I didn't know that the dust storms had been the consequence of a disastrous combination of prolonged drought and soil erosion caused by reckless farming. Timothy Egan's tells the story of how it all started and how how it was allowed to happen through survivors' testimonies, made personal by the presence of great real-life `characters' - the town magnate, the school teacher, the cowboy and many more. The subject matter is heavy going but Egan turned it into a compelling read.It is worth noting that this is the book upon which Ken Burns' documentary  Ken Burns - The Dust Bowl [Region 2 UK Version] [DVD ] is based. If you are planning to watch the DVD too, it's worth reading the book first and treat the DVD as a companion to it rather than the other way around. Otherwise your reading experience will be somewhat spoiled by knowing in advance the fate of those people, who survived, who left, who made it, who gave up. `The Worst Hard Time' isn't a novel, but it certainly makes you care for its protagonists.It's hard to believe that the Dust Bowl was one of the biggest man-made environmental catastrophes of modern times; and it's even harder to believe that it's no longer talked about. This book should be a compulsory reading for all politicians who still consider the earth's resources as a commodity to be plundered and exploited in the name of human greed.

Brilliant book ,and goes into great detail ,especially with the diaries of those who suffered . About a people who went to new lands in the hope of making a new and fresh start . But with a lack of farming knowledge of the area ,,some greed , ending up in a man made disaster .Native American Indians who had been thrown off their lands ,after another broken treaty ,had managed this land for thousands of years ,and knew the weather and natural cycles and were able to adapt .The knew breed of farmer was doomed ,once the first sod was turned over ,and on top of this greed set in with a lot of them ,when the Government encouraged them to grow as much grain as possible during the first world war . When things went belly up ,after borrowing from banks for machinery ,cars, houses, etc, disaster followed with the Dust Bowl of the 30's .People couldn't pay back ,,banks collapsed all over the area ,and evictions . It seems we still haven't learnt from the past ,with banks collapsing and evictions all over and no respect for nature . A book ,very well written ,with food for thought ..

Brilliantly written account of the travails and hardships suffered by settlers in the midwest during the depression.

This is a really useful book. I got started on the American Dustbowl problem in the 1930s by reading John Steinbecks the Grapes of Wrath. The worst Hard Time covers the era and includes lots of anecdotal contributions as well as what Franklin D Roosevelt was doing to help the problem. It gives details of why the problem arose in the first place and the history of the great planes them selves.

Excellent read, gives a good feeling for the era of the great depression and dust bowl. Identifies the magnitude of the problems and provides insight into the unintended consequences of farming methods of the day coupled with the hysteria every financial boom seems to peak at.

Having watched the story of the environmental distater this book tells a compelling story of the world of those farmers fooled into belibelieving in the promises made by those who allowed them to be exploited

Well written. Excellent descriptions. I felt part of the difficult period.