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A review by maggie_sotos
The Worst Hard Time: The Untold Story of Those Who Survived the Great American Dust Bowl by Timothy Egan
5.0
I was worried that a historical non-fiction examination of the Dust Bowl would be a (wait for it….) DRY read.
I know, puns are the worst. Especially when they make light of some really horrific stuff. But if the people of Texas and Oklahoma could find reasons to get out of bed in the morning in 1935 after their livestock had suffocated from sand and dirt storms, and shaking your neighbor's hand would give you an overwhelming electrical shock, and getting caught in a duster could literally make you go blind…then yeah, we can find humor in this tragedy.
I listened to this book on tape and found myself idling in the car sometimes to justify getting to the end of a chapter. I loved this book so dang much. I think some of the passages that shocked me the most were the descriptions of approaching dusters, particularly Black Sunday. It sounded like a horror film. And yet it was also balanced -- it fairly pointed out that this environmental catastrophe was mostly caused by men and the US Government's ignorance/ hubris, and that common sense and science probably could have prevented much of the wreckage.
Oh, and also, there was a lot of racism. The book talks about it a little bit, but skimps over a lot of the "cultural details" of the time. This is not to say that "Okies" deserved the Dust Bowl because they were racists, but painting American farmers as simple, open-minded and gentle folks is definitely a white washed version of the truth. I am glad Egan made an attempt to share some of these alternative (aka non-white) perspectives, and showed us a few of the warts on the Great Southern Plains' landscape.
All in all, if you want to supplement your historical knowledge of the the Dust Bowl in a fairly painless and interesting way, I'd recommend this bad boy for sure.
I know, puns are the worst. Especially when they make light of some really horrific stuff. But if the people of Texas and Oklahoma could find reasons to get out of bed in the morning in 1935 after their livestock had suffocated from sand and dirt storms, and shaking your neighbor's hand would give you an overwhelming electrical shock, and getting caught in a duster could literally make you go blind…then yeah, we can find humor in this tragedy.
I listened to this book on tape and found myself idling in the car sometimes to justify getting to the end of a chapter. I loved this book so dang much. I think some of the passages that shocked me the most were the descriptions of approaching dusters, particularly Black Sunday. It sounded like a horror film. And yet it was also balanced -- it fairly pointed out that this environmental catastrophe was mostly caused by men and the US Government's ignorance/ hubris, and that common sense and science probably could have prevented much of the wreckage.
Oh, and also, there was a lot of racism. The book talks about it a little bit, but skimps over a lot of the "cultural details" of the time. This is not to say that "Okies" deserved the Dust Bowl because they were racists, but painting American farmers as simple, open-minded and gentle folks is definitely a white washed version of the truth. I am glad Egan made an attempt to share some of these alternative (aka non-white) perspectives, and showed us a few of the warts on the Great Southern Plains' landscape.
All in all, if you want to supplement your historical knowledge of the the Dust Bowl in a fairly painless and interesting way, I'd recommend this bad boy for sure.