A Good Day's Work: An Iowa Farm in the Great Depression

by Dwight W. Hoover

Despite beautiful landscapes and bountiful harvests, farming is hard work and always has been. The Great Depression in rural America, which began in the 1920s and lasted until World War II, made it still harder. At a time when tractors were replacing horses and the family farm was giving way to the large, single-crop enterprise, the struggle to survive and modernize in a period of economic scarcity was especially sharp. In A Good Day's Work , Dwight Hoover, who grew up on an Iowa farm in this era, recalls the events of day-to-day life on a single farm, offering detailed descriptions of daily work in each of the year's four seasons. A Good Day's Work is a fascinating if grim reminder of what it was like to be a child with adult responsibilities. Mr. Hoover's unusual memoir recalls the rough edges as well as the happy moments of rural life. It is an honest re-creation of a world that was vanishing.

256 pages, Hardcover

First published April 18, 2007

Reviews

[Carolyn · Rating 3 out of 5]

Because my grandparents and parents had roots in Iowa farmland, I found this book to be quite interesting. It is a simple descriptive text, but, for me it evoked imagery of visits to the family farm (now a Century farm owned by my relatives for over 100 years). The hard work required to keep a farm running is conveyed in an easy to read style.

[Virginia · Rating 3 out of 5]

A very straightforward detailed account of life as an Iowa farmboy in 30's.

[Lenora Carey]

This book show the day to day farm work during the Great Depression.