| View Larger Image | The Worst Hard Time: The Untold Story of Those Who Survived the Great American Dust Bowl | Paperbackby Timothy Egan (Author)
| List Price: | $14.95 | | Price: | $10.17 | | You Save: | $4.78 (32%) | | | Available: | Usually ships in 24 hours |
| | Binding: | Paperback | | Publisher: | Mariner Books | | Edition: | First Editionth Edition | | Page Count: | 340 Pages | | Publication Date: | September 01, 2006 | | Sales Rank: | 887th |
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FEATURES | - ISBN13: 9780618773473
- Condition: NEW
- Notes: Brand New from Publisher. No Remainder Mark.
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EDITORIAL REVIEWS |
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 Customer Rating: 4.5 based on 243 reviews)
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Fascinating! by SJThomas (Orchard Park, NY)  5 Stars
November 16, 2009
One of the rare books to tell the real story of the dust bowl. Filled with real people stories and their stamina, grit and fortitude. I was so shocked that people endured this kind of hardship and for such a long period of time. Incredible. Must read.
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the worst hard time by Joseph M. Case (Syracuse, NY USA) 5 Stars
November 11, 2009
The book was one of those "can't put down books". I read it in less than a week, it's so descriptive of the storms and the people involved. I could feel the sand in my eyes and mouth. His word pictures are so descriptive it takes your breath away. I highly reccommend this book for everyone's reading, it part of our history which everyone knows about but very few know the why and what it was really like. The immensity of the storms is mind boggleing. My thanks to Mr. Egan.
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An insightful look at the dust bowl history by S. RUSSELL (Wyoming) 5 Stars
October 26, 2009
I really liked this book, and have loaned it out to others, bought it for others and recommended it as well. My mother grew up in the dust bowl and I nevwer really knew what it meant...knew that there was a drought but not how bad it was. Mom grew up as one of five children on a Kansas farm in the dust bowl area, and she talked some about how bad it was, at least financially: she would have one dress for school, and wear shoes way after they were too small, which was why she had problems with her feet all her life. What really struck me was that the dust bowl probably killed her: she died in 1971, at the age of 51, of Adult Respitory Distress Syndrome, which is a fancy way of saying a person can't get enough air to breathe. She'd gone into the hospital for surgery and just never came out. I never could understand why, and I believe now it was a combination of things: 15 years of smoking [she'd quit 10 years before] and the dust bowl. What they were breathing was not only dust but silica, which cut their lungs.
It gives me a far better understanding of the hardships my mother endured growing up. I'm aghast at the fact that in that area, the trees planted to stop such erosion, are being /have been cut down.
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A haunting and powerful account by Paul Cooper  4 Stars
October 20, 2009
In the Worst Hard Time, author Timothy Egan lays out the factors and conditions that set the stage for one of America's worst ecological disasters, the Dust Bowl storms of the Great Plains. In a creative narrative, Egan pulls no punches as he clearly shows how the awesome dust clouds that rolled across the prairie lands were the result of unfettered greed and ignorance of Great Plains farmers who radically disrupted an ancient ecosystem in an attempt to transform these states into an agricultural bread bowl.
Egan is a gifted storyteller, and creates gripping characterizations of the settlers and their challenges. He emphasizes their courage and determination in the face of insurmountable odds, yet does not hide the fact that these Spartan farmers were all too willing to settle on land that was openly stolen from Native Americans.
Particularly memorable are Egan's heart wrenching and meticulous descriptions of these terrible storms. It is as if Egan is gently causing us to wonder if the terrible, prolonged suffering was retribution for the unrepentant covetousness and prejudice that oddly coexisted with the discipline and morality of the settlers.
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History we should not forget by I. M. A. Reader (Seattle, WA)  3 Stars
October 19, 2009
Timothy Egan does a wonderful job of personalizing the era of the dust bowl by following the lives of real people and their daily lives as the events unfolded. As I read the book I felt covered in dust myself and needed a glass of water close by while I struggled along with the people in the situations presented by the wind and drought conditions. Thanks, Tim for educating me. Let us not forget this valuable lesson.
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A New York Times Notable Book of the Year
Winner of the Mountains and Plains Book Seller's Association Award
"Sprawling in scope. . . . Mr. Egan uses the past powerfully to explain and give dimension to the present." --The New York Times
"Fine reportage . . . honed and polished until it reads more like literature than journalism." --Los Angeles Times
"They have tried to tame it, shave it, fence it, cut it, dam it, drain it, nuke it, poison it, pave it, and subdivide...
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