Presents an oral history of the dust storms that devastated the Great Plains during the Depression, following several families and their communities in their struggle to persevere despite the devastation.

[A] fierce, humane account of the dreams and extremes that crashed head on during the nearly decade-long calamity of the Dust Bowl. The New York Times

[A] vivid and gritty piece of forgotten history.
USA Today

"The Worst Hard Time" provides a sobering, gripping account of a disaster whose wounds are still not fully healed today.
Boston Globe

The Worst Hard Time is a haunting work of narrative nonfiction.
The Baltimore Sun

Egan has admirably captured a part of our American experience that should not be forgotten.
The San Francisco Chronicle

Egan is a passionate and accomplished writer...Read this for history, not inspiration or entertainment.
The Denver Post

Egan's account of the Dust Bowl era is a final, terrible rebuke to the policies of America's dying days of frontier expansion.
The Seattle Times

THE WORST HARD TIME is a flat-out masterpiece of historical reportage.
Seattle Post-Intelligencer

Autorentext

TIMOTHY EGAN is a Pulitzer Prize–winning reporter and the author of eight other books, most recently The Immortal Irishman, a New York Times bestseller. His book on the Dust Bowl, The Worst Hard Time, won a National Book Award for nonfiction. His account of photographer Edward Curtis, Short Nights of the Shadow Catcher, won the Carnegie Medal for nonfiction. He writes a biweekly opinion column for the New York Times.

Klappentext

This National Book Award-winning story, a tour de force of historical reportage, rescues an iconic chapter of American history—the Dust Bowl that terrorized the High Plains in the darkest years of the Depression—from the shadows.

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.

Zusammenfassung
This National Book Awardwinning story, a tour de force of historical reportage and narrative nonfiction, rescues an iconic chapter of American historythe Dust Bowl that terrorized the High Plains in the darkest years of the Depressionfrom the shadows.

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. This unforgettable chronicle of the Dirty Thirties reveals:

• American History: The untold story of the families who stayed behind in the Oklahoma and Texas panhandles, facing crop failure, dust pneumonia, and the death of loved ones.
• Black Blizzards: A vivid depiction of the terrifying dust storms that boiled up into the sky, rolled like mountains, and penetrated every aspect of life, turning day into night.
• The Great Depression: An intimate look at human resilience during one of the nation's darkest decades, focusing on the stoic men and women who endured an unprecedented catastrophe.
• Environmental Disaster: A powerful, cautionary tale that explores how the greatest grassland in the world was turned inside out, resulting in an ecological collapse that still holds lessons today.

Inhalt
Contents

Introduction: Live Through This 1

I • PROMISE: The Great Plowup, 1901–1930

1. The Wanderer 13 2. No Man’s Land 32 3. Creating Dalhart 52 4. High Plains Deutsch 59 5. Last of the Great Plowup 73

II • BETRAYAL, 1931–1933

6. First Wave 91 7. A Darkening 103 8. In a Dry Land 115 9. New Leader, New Deal 128 10. Big Blows 136

III • BLOWUP, 1934–1939

11. Triage 145 12. The Long Darkness 155 13. The Struggle for Air 171 14. Showdown in Dalhart 176 15. Duster’s Eve 193 16. Black Sunday 198 17. A Call to Arms 222 18. Goings 236 19. Witnesses 242 20. The Saddest Land 254 21. Verdict 265 22. Cornhusker II 273 23. The Last Men 279 24. Cornhusker III 293 25. Rain 303

Epilogue 309 Notes and Sources 315 Acknowledgments 328 Index 331