10.21.2008

"The Worst Hard Time"

A book by Timothy Egan (and just added to the blog reading list), "The Worst Hard Time" tells the stories of people who lived through the disastrous "dust bowl" years that occurred on the US high plains in the 1930's.

After reading Steinbeck's "The Grapes of Wrath" a couple of times and hearing countless stories and folk songs about the period I thought I knew what happened back then but, as it turns out, not so much. The stories Egan retells are staggering in detail and scope. By any measure this is a fascinating book, both for its illumination of nature's fury and its portrait of the people who lived on the land, and stories well told. If you've got a free spot on your reading list, this would be a good pick to fill it.

(Photo Credit: NOAA Photo Library, Historic NWS collection)



1 comment:

Anonymous said...
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.