The Worst Hard Time question

I read it shortly after it was published. It was written about the area I grew up in - Oklahoma and Texas Panhandles. My family still lives there. I was able to corroborate much of the stories from my own relatives, including the gruesome rabbit drives. The dust storms actually continue to this day, regardless of conservation techniques. It might not have been quite as fascinating to me, as I grew up in the region, but the book is spot on.

I loved this book. I used to travel 30 states with the railroad and I was assigned the exact area this book covers, Boise City, Enid, Oklahoma, Baca County Colorado and the old XIT ranch.

As I drove this area, I listened to the audiobook version of this story. It was wonderful!

This is a great book! I love reading about the lesser known events in American history and how it frames our culture and reveals the stamina and courage of its people. I like Egan's writing style. If you liked this book, then I suggest you read his other book, The Big Burn: Teddy Roosevelt and the Fire that Saved America. Happy reading!

I read it when it came out. Both sides of my parents family were from the "mid west", Kansas / North Dakota. While none of my grandparents lived through, it's a great story of Americans facing the worst in their life.

Someone here commented that they hoped that this was fiction or even Science Fiction. I never knew much the origins of the Dust Bowl in any detail. The fact that a very basic fact is that they were caused by ranchers destroying the grasslands through greed, need, ignorance and most importantly not even slightly paying attention to why the Native Americans who were displaced were able to live in the area as farmers originally. Attention to what they had to give for advice would have erased the history that was made with the suffering of the Dust Bowl generation in that area,
A very very good read and eye opening.

It was gripping writing and really was vivid and visceral, that it made me feel awe at the power of the dust storms and sympathy for those who endured them.

The author did also a fantastic job of explaining why the dust bowl took place.

Well worth reading, one of the best American history books I have read. I read it as a disaster trilogy of sorts this year along with Rising Tide (about the 1927 Mississippi flood) and Big Burn, both of which I highly recommend.

I grew up on the western edge of the Colorado short grass prairie. Born a decade after the Dust Bowl, I remember clearly in the mid 1950s waiting at the train station in Lasalle, Colorado when the winds rose in the east without warning and the sky turned the same brown as the earth blotting out the sun. For a child, it was terrifying, but what was most terrifying was the fear on the faces of the adults who had lived those desperate days in the 1930s.

As the intervening years have seen center-pivot irrigation mine the millennium old waters Ogallala Aquifer, this story of short sighted resource use for short term gain needs to be retold and retold. Perhaps if it is, enough people may hear it and act.

This book broke my heart.

I loved it mostly because it brought some insight into how my family immigrated. The timelines, the food, the work...it all made sense!

I read this book when it was forst published,for my live book group. Then,and now I was astounded of the horrors produced by nature and by not being reverent toward planet Earth.
So much agony was created not only for our nation but for people depending on it's harvest. The perserverence of our farmers and the other industries badly effected by the dust bowl is a testiment to how we will likely need to behave in the future.
This is an excellent read, and one I believe everyone,including middle school students and older should be required to read.

So many books have covered the story of those who fled the dust bowl. This one focused on those who stayed, and the incredible (and I use that word literally because I don't think any of us in today's world can really imagine what they faced) challenges they faced. For that reason, and the writing style, research and first person narratives, I highly recommend this book.

I also feel that this book was excellent and I rank it in my favorite Top Ten books. I love reading non-fiction books. Timothy Egan is an excellent writer and my goal is to read all of his books. This book was like eating the perfect bacon cheeseburger because you could sink your into it and enjoy every bite (word).

I recommend it to my American History students.

I can't imagine what it would have been like to live during that period. It seems like unending misery. I wonder if we are not witnessing the start of another similar event with the current drought out west.

I read the book, and it was great! I like the way it explains everything using different survivors! Although it did change a little often so you really had to read it and pay attention... Very good book so far! It is a little advanced for me right now, so I am going to continue it later on!!

I thought this book was amazing. Well worth the time to read.

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This is really well done, and no small wonder it has drawn such critical acclaim. It esp. useful to those of us who have gone through school in other parts of the country, or in countries other than the USA, because then it isn't really in any required hst. curriculum and one could go straight through all of the required years of school w/o learning about this period.
Egan takes us there; I felt dust particles under my eyelids and sand between my teeth for a week after I was done!

I read this book two or maybe three years ago, so I don't remember many of the details but the book is a keeper: one that I will re-read at some time. One aspect of the book that made an impression on me was the realization that lessons of the 1930s: the importance of contour farming were not learned and the dust clouds repeated themselves in the 1950s.

The dustbowl farmers were really tough people. I don't think I could have endured the misery of watching the fences on my land being buried, or hopelessness of watching your way of life being destroyed.

You might like to read "The Big Burn", another true story by the same author.

This is nonfiction that reads like fiction and I wish it were science fiction. It is troubling what we have done to our country in the name of progress. However, if it were not for the dust bowl migration, I might never have met my husband, whose parents came out west during that awful time. They wound up on their feet with a good job for his father near Fresno, CA, where they lived for the rest of their lives.

I am so impressed with Timothy Egan. Currently working on reading everything he writes! Just checked out Lasso the Wind from library. As a retired USFS employee, I found the Big Burn to be insightful!

I agree with all the positive comments on the book. It is one of the best non fiction books I have read. Janet M nails it as the story of the dust bowl made into a human story, and the suffering of the animals was gruesome. PBS put out a good documentary based on Egan's book, and in it they mention the title of a novel Their Names are Unknown by Sanora Bab. I just ordered it. It is reputed to be as good or better than The Grapes of Wrath.

Great book. Unbelievable what people and animals endured. I had heard stories of the dust bowl but reading this book was an eye opener on how conditions for the dust bowl actually came about.

This is a great book. I had absolutely no idea just how bad the dust bowl affected so many people in such tragic ways. I consider it a must read for those of us who live in an area facing drought conditions. It contains important truths we need to heed.

Great book I agree with sweatpea read The Big Burn: Teddy Roosevelt and the Fire that Saved AmericaTimothy Egan. Anyone read Short Nights of the Shadow Catcher: The Epic Life and Immortal Photographs of Edward CurtisTimothy Egan

I too loved the book. It's among the best nonfiction I've ever read. Timothy Egan took the story of the dust bowl and made it a human story full of colorful characters. It reads like a novel and I would highly recommend it to anyone.

This photo was taken 109 miles from Boise City and close to Guymon, OK, which was mentioned in the book:

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