Book Review: "The Worst Hard Time," by Timothy Egan

When I came across Timothy Egan's The Worst Hard Time, I had to read it. I love a good history book, and the epic scale disaster of the Dust Bowl 1930s has always been fascinating to me. It astounds me that such bleak devastation could be the result of removing the natural grasslands for farming combined with a horrific drought. Yet it happened, and not that long ago.

New York Times writer Egan doesn't give a dry, academic history of the "Dirty Thirties," but rather presents the story of what led to the Dust Bowl years, and shares stories of the people who lived through the despair. It's eye-opening to read of these immense storms that blotted out the sun at times and sometimes literally choked the life right out of the landscape.

Once the area that became Ground Zero for the Dust Bowl -- parts of Nebraska, Oklahoma, Kansas, New Mexico, Texas and Colorado -- was populated with buffalo and Native Americans. We all know what happened to both, run down to near extinction. There was a land boom, and scores of people headed west to settle this wide open expanse of grassland. Cowboys preferred to respect the land, keep it for grazing, but the newcomers had farming in mind, and the government supported their ambitions.

In a few short years the native grasslands that had taken centuries to root and hold down the soil, had been plowed up, and corn and other crops planted. The early years were booming. Rains fell plentifully and things grew in abundance. Farmers took in top prices for wheat, corn and more. Then, the dry spell arrived. Not just one bad summer, but more than half a decade, and longer in some parts.

This is the story Egan chooses to tell, of these people who stayed behind, who suffered vicious storms and brutal winds and hellacious heat waves. People and animals and land died away. A good number of the population suffered dust pneumonia, coughing up black slime, choking and gasping for breath. Many, including infants and children, went to an early grave. People and cattle suffocated in the dust. One time, someone cut a dead cow open and its guts were loaded with fine sand. The animal had died of starvation, yet stuffed with dust.

People could barely drive on the roads, the drifts and the visibility were so bad. The blowing dust generated static electricity, sometimes enough that if someone touched their car or a barbed wire fence, the jolt would send them reeling. It got into houses, sifted in through roofs and crept in through windows and cracks. Some gave up and left, but Egan chooses to focus more on those who chose to stay behind. They considered themselves hardy, types who would not give up. It's interesting to see what the years of extreme weather combined with the Great Depression do to them.

President Franklin Delano Roosevelt tries to help, brings relief to the area, but it's not an easy job. The area is so devastated, but the government tries to push conservation methods and buying up sick cattle. It's bare-bones survival mode, but it helps pull some people through. It's a relief when it really begins to rain. There is hope in those droplets. Then this great disaster story comes to an end, serving a powerful lesson about interfering with nature too much.

The Worst Hard Time is available at amazon.com, or check out your area bookseller