The Worst Hard Time: The Untold Story of Those Who Survived the Great American Dust Bowl
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.
5 stars to a book about the Dust Bowl - who would've thought it? Egan does an amazing job of combining the varied causes, and the related perspectives, of the drouth that savaged the plains throughout the 1930s. Not only was it an amazing read, made personal through the stories of a handful of families in the Texas / Oklahoma panhandle, I learned about one of the most influential and far-reaching incidents in our country's history. And the parallels to the environmental, governmental, political,
3.5 This is one of those books that makes you realize you thought you knew something, but didn't. I was born in Bakersfield California but spent my childhood being called an 'Okie'. All my grandparents moved from Oklahoma during the dustbowl period so I have always had an interest in the subject, especially after reading Steinbecks 'Grapes of Wrath'. One of my grandparents, Viola White, is still with us and has shared some great stories. She is 94 years old. Because of the personal attachment to
ExhaustingSoberingDepressingInstructiveHaunting Interesting TimelyGrindingSurprisingPainfulImportantNow, what's up with the subtitle? If it were really "The Untold Story," wouldn't it just be a book full of blank pages? Shouldn't it be "The Previously Untold Story"? And why don't publishers ever ask me for my opinions on these things? This calls for some serious pouting. You should still read the book though. Outstanding research and thorough presentation with lessons for us in our 21st-Century
Once upon a time there was a country where speculation ran rampant, environmental disaster loomed, and foreclosures and job loss dominated the economy. It was the Great Depression, v1.0.Timothy Egan's book has an unusual perspective. It is about those who *stayed* in Oklahoma and the Texas Panhandle during the dust bowl. It is the story of government supported land speculation gone horribly wrong. The farmers uprooted a fragile grass ecology and destroyed 1000s of years of topsoil. Raging dust
This happend less than a century ago and affected millions of Americans and yet it doesn't find much room in most histories of the USA. We know more about those who left the "Dust Bowl" than those who stuck it out. Egan's well-documented recounting is engaging, enlightening and, in many ways, shocking.
Timothy Egan
Paperback | Pages: 340 pages Rating: 4.03 | 44153 Users | 4817 Reviews
Itemize Books In Pursuance Of The Worst Hard Time: The Untold Story of Those Who Survived the Great American Dust Bowl
Original Title: | The Worst Hard Time: The Untold Story of Those Who Survived the Great American Dust Bowl |
ISBN: | 0618773479 (ISBN13: 9780618773473) |
Edition Language: | English |
Literary Awards: | National Book Award for Nonfiction (2006), Borders Original Voices Award for Nonfiction (2006), Ambassador Book Award for American Studies (2007), Washington State Book Award for History/Biography (2006) |
Description Concering Books The Worst Hard Time: The Untold Story of Those Who Survived the Great American Dust Bowl
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.
Mention Of Books The Worst Hard Time: The Untold Story of Those Who Survived the Great American Dust Bowl
Title | : | The Worst Hard Time: The Untold Story of Those Who Survived the Great American Dust Bowl |
Author | : | Timothy Egan |
Book Format | : | Paperback |
Book Edition | : | Special Edition |
Pages | : | Pages: 340 pages |
Published | : | September 1st 2006 by Mariner Books (first published December 14th 2005) |
Categories | : | History. Nonfiction. North American Hi.... American History. Historical. Audiobook. Environment. Adventure. Survival |
Rating Of Books The Worst Hard Time: The Untold Story of Those Who Survived the Great American Dust Bowl
Ratings: 4.03 From 44153 Users | 4817 ReviewsDiscuss Of Books The Worst Hard Time: The Untold Story of Those Who Survived the Great American Dust Bowl
How to explain a place where hollow-bellied horses chewed on fence posts , where static electricity made it painful to shake another mans hand, where the only thing growing that a man or cow could eat was an unwelcome foreigner, the Russian thistle? How to explain fifty thousand or more houses abandoned throughout the Great Plains, never to hear a childs laugh or a womans song inside their walls? How to explain nine million acres of farmland without a master? America was passing this land by.5 stars to a book about the Dust Bowl - who would've thought it? Egan does an amazing job of combining the varied causes, and the related perspectives, of the drouth that savaged the plains throughout the 1930s. Not only was it an amazing read, made personal through the stories of a handful of families in the Texas / Oklahoma panhandle, I learned about one of the most influential and far-reaching incidents in our country's history. And the parallels to the environmental, governmental, political,
3.5 This is one of those books that makes you realize you thought you knew something, but didn't. I was born in Bakersfield California but spent my childhood being called an 'Okie'. All my grandparents moved from Oklahoma during the dustbowl period so I have always had an interest in the subject, especially after reading Steinbecks 'Grapes of Wrath'. One of my grandparents, Viola White, is still with us and has shared some great stories. She is 94 years old. Because of the personal attachment to
ExhaustingSoberingDepressingInstructiveHaunting Interesting TimelyGrindingSurprisingPainfulImportantNow, what's up with the subtitle? If it were really "The Untold Story," wouldn't it just be a book full of blank pages? Shouldn't it be "The Previously Untold Story"? And why don't publishers ever ask me for my opinions on these things? This calls for some serious pouting. You should still read the book though. Outstanding research and thorough presentation with lessons for us in our 21st-Century
Once upon a time there was a country where speculation ran rampant, environmental disaster loomed, and foreclosures and job loss dominated the economy. It was the Great Depression, v1.0.Timothy Egan's book has an unusual perspective. It is about those who *stayed* in Oklahoma and the Texas Panhandle during the dust bowl. It is the story of government supported land speculation gone horribly wrong. The farmers uprooted a fragile grass ecology and destroyed 1000s of years of topsoil. Raging dust
This happend less than a century ago and affected millions of Americans and yet it doesn't find much room in most histories of the USA. We know more about those who left the "Dust Bowl" than those who stuck it out. Egan's well-documented recounting is engaging, enlightening and, in many ways, shocking.
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