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The Worst Hard Time
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The Worst Hard Time (2006) (edit title/settings)

The Untold Story of Those Who Survived the Great American Dust Bowl

by Timothy Egan (Author) (edit contributors)

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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... read more

Summary edit see section history

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... read more (warning: may contain spoilers)

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.

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Quotes edit see section history

  • “Between the earth and the sky I felt erased, blotted out.”
    Willa Cather
  • “"Americans had become a force of awful geology, changing the face of the earth more than 'the combined activities of valcanoes, earthquakes, tidal waves, tornadoes, and all the excavations of mankind since the beginning of history." - pg 127”

First Sentence edit see section history

ON THOSE DAYS when the wind stops blowing across the face of the southern plains, the land falls into a silence that scares people in the way that a big house can haunt after the lights go out and no one else is there.

Table of Contents edit see section history

Introduction: Live Through This

I PROMISE: The Great Plowup, 1901-1930
1. The Wanderer
2. No Man's Land
3. Creating Dalhart
4. High Plains Deutsch
5. Last of the Great Plowup

II BETRAYAL, 1931-1933
6. First Wave
7. A Darkening
8. In a Dry Land
9. New Leader, New Deal
10. Big Blows

III BLOWUP, 1934-1939
11. Triage
12. The Long Darkness
13. The Struggle for Air
14. Showdown in Dalhart
15. Duster's Eve
16. Black Sunday
17. A Call to Arms
18. Goings
19. Witnesses
20. The Saddest Land
21. Verdict
22. Cornhusker II
23. The Last Men
24. Cornhusker III
25. Rain

Epilogue

Notes and Sources
Acknowledgments
Index

Authors & Contributors edit see section history

  1. Timothy Egan (Author)

First Edition edit see section history

Original Language: English
Publisher: Mariner Books
Country: United States
Publication Date: September 1, 2006
ISBN: 0618773479
Page Count: 340

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