The Worst Hard Time: The Untold Story of Those Who Survived the Great American Dust Bowl鈥旳 National Book Award Winner in Pick-a-Shelf

Feb 22, 2013 Mmars rated it really liked it

Shelves: nonfiction, history

Really 3.5

This is a heart-breaking history of a man-made environmental disaster and I approach this review with mixed feelings. At times I had to push myself through the repetition of dust storm descriptions and their aftermath. The history is told chronologically, focusing on a handful of communities and, largely, the inhabitants who were determined to stay. Year after year from the early to late 30s (I hadn鈥檛 realized the dust storms lasted that many years) the dust storms persisted. At times Really 3.5

This is a heart-breaking history of a man-made environmental disaster and I approach this review with mixed feelings. At times I had to push myself through the repetition of dust storm descriptions and their aftermath. The history is told chronologically, focusing on a handful of communities and, largely, the inhabitants who were determined to stay. Year after year from the early to late 30s (I hadn鈥檛 realized the dust storms lasted that many years) the dust storms persisted. At times in the telling, the reading was excruciating as the scenes repeated and I lost track of the years.

This is perhaps a fault of the book, and perhaps not. After all, it is what happened as the buffalo grass and grazing land was plowed and turned into tilled land. Millions and millions of acres of land, and tons and tons of dirt blew away.

Egan painstakingly chronicles each step of this environmental disaster. How the cowboys warned against it. How lucrative the first years were for the crop farmers. How more and more land was purchased and the different angles of settlement and land acquisition. The role of the government every step of the way. The heroes and the villains during the disaster. Who the settlers were and where they came from. The financial role of the banks and community businessmen. The glut of wheat and resulting in suppression of price. The persistent lack of rain and extreme of temperature in summer and winter. The contrast of the Hoover administration and Roosevelt鈥檚 New Deal. The beginning of farm subsidies. Crops blowing away. Grasshopper plagues. And on and on.

But more than all this, it is a book that focuses on the people and their livelihood. How most were defeated and how few barely survived the entire disaster, with little physical health or mental well-being in tact, nearly all in financial ruin. Forced to sell all the machinery and animals they owned to keep their land. Eating pickled tumbleweed and roadkill. Loss everywhere they turned. Scrounging to earn anything they could in any way they could.

Egan must be applauded for writing this important history, it could have been tightened up at times, but I take much away from this book. I think any reader would.
...more

5 likes · Like · see review

Oct 02, 2016 Lorna rated it really liked it

Shelves: national-book-award, non-fiction

The book was very readable. It was also interesting yet so sad. I can't comprehend such horrible living conditions. I recommend to anyone who enjoys historical nonfiction and would like to know more about the Dust Bowl during the depression.

...more

3 likes · Like · see review

Nov 14, 2007 Joanna rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: nonfiction, audiobooks, 2013-read, rws-2013-spring

The narrator for the audiobook version did a fine job with a poorly written book about a fascinating subject. The author tried to enliven the tale with personal stories about certain families living through the dust storms of the 1930s. But the writing was so flowery and sensationalist that it detracted from what should have been really compelling story telling.

I also listened to large parts of this book while driving through torrential downpours and storming weather, which felt wholly appropri ...more

Like · see review

Apr 07, 2008 Rachel N. rated it liked it

Overall this was an interesting but depressing book. I could only read a few chapters at a time before I had to take a break. The first few chapters were slow reading but it got easier to read once the dust started blowing. Good if you are interested in history or this period in time.

Like · see review

Jun 18, 2008 Suzanne rated it really liked it

Shelves: history

Very illuminating. I read this with a book club and we all agreed that we had none of this history in school. Fascinating.

Like · see review

Dec 28, 2008 LynnB added it

Shelves: history, non-fiction, book-club, american-history, disasters

Like

Jan 01, 2009 Raelynn rated it really liked it

Like

Apr 05, 2009 Anne rated it liked it

Like

Mar 15, 2019 David rated it it was amazing

Shelves: one-book-one-lincoln, moving-mountains-2018

1 like · Like

Mar 22, 2010 Kathy marked it as to-read

Like

Mar 22, 2010 Gaijinmama marked it as to-read

Shelves: history

1 like · Like

Aug 14, 2010 Mimi rated it really liked it

Like

Aug 22, 2010 Kathy marked it as to-read

Like

Nov 24, 2010 Deedee marked it as to-read

Shelves: nonfiction-general, w2, srcs-fall-members-choices, 0t-nature, interrogative, cover-brown, year-2005, new-york-times-100-notable-2006, hardscrabble, e

Like