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[/amazon_link]The Worst Hard Time: The Untold Story of Those Who Survived the Great American Dust Bowl
Timothy Egan
It’s actually overtime for another book review. I have been reading, but not as much as I had hoped! We have had LOTS going on around here and unfortunately it’s been cutting into my reading time. However… I’ve finished a book!
This book chronicles the lives a a couple different families as they experienced the Great Dust Bowl of the 1930s. The book actually covers events leading up to the dust bowl in 1901 – 1930 and then the Great Dust Bowl which encompasses 1931 – 1939.
I’ve grown up on the East Coast and so has my family. When I hear stories of the Great Depression from my grandparents it is usually related to what it was like in this area. I have no familial connection with Texas, Oklahoma, Kansas, Nebraska or the other Great Plains states and consequently haven’t heard any first hand stories of what it was like.
I found this book to be a bit long at 340 pages, but the length helped me to realize how this drug on for the people who suffered through this time. It made me realize how desperate and depressing a time it was. Some of these farmers had no crops and no income for 3 or more years and yet were able to survive on their homesteads.
As I read about these families I couldn’t believe the hardships they faced and yet how they were determined to stick by the land even as it was all blowing away, hoping it would get better and that life would change and improve.
There was also some politics woven into these stories, including the bread and soup lines, how the President addressed the situation, and many different opinions of how this could have happened, what caused it and how it could be fixed.
The people and the stories of their lives are incredible and it is only a few of the many who survived the time. They went from immense prosperity with huge crops and large earnings and wealth, to losing everything. Their cars, farm equipment, the rich soil and rain which they depended on and sometimes their homes and their own lives.
I learned a lot and have a much greater respect for the families that persevered and worked incredibly hard just to survive.
I can’t imagine the research and time that went into this book. I think it is a great retelling of the history of the time and would highly recommend it!
If you’ve read it, I’d love to hear what you thought!
Green & Grateful 