On The Worst Hard Time by Timothy Egan

The Worst Hard Time by Timothy Egan was an excellent book about the Dust Bowl, the worst natural disaster in American History, which took place in the 1930s, from the Dakotas to the Texas Panhandle. The book highlighted the stories of families in different counties: Baca County in Colorado, Cimarron County in Oklahoma, and Dallam County in Texas, as well as the town of Inavale, Nebraska. The author followed families who survived the Dust Bowl and also lived through the boom and bust of wheat production. For context, the midwest, prior to the Homestead Act of 1860, was deemed "the Great American Desert" by John Wesley Powell and Stephen Long, two of the US most influential surveyors. Nevertheless, the federal government paid people to move to and sow land that was uninhabitable in the long term. While the dust bowl area had been through periodic drought, human interference tremendously exacerbated it. 

The most famous event in the Dust Bowl was Black Sunday, April 14 1935, but there were many severe dust storms; A storm in May 1934 was 1800 miles wide and carried three tons of dust for every American alive (p196). "Most Baca residents would have starved without the government..with nearly 50% of the county on relief," (p308). People were suffering, with no other place to go: "In Nebraska, you don't have to do to go to hell," (p389). 

This book was powerful in its impact and engaging to read. I highly recommend!