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Average Customer Rating:

An absolutely magnificent work of history.

Customer Rating:

I have read many books on history and biography. Egan's work is probably the finest of them all, bar none. To amplify this, after I finished reading the book I turned to page one and immediately read it again. It is that extraordinary. Egan did such a magnificent job that sometimes I felt as though I was reading Charles Frazier's prose instead of history. Yes, the storms came and continued coming for 5 years, but I found every page of his presentation of life on the Great Plains during the Dust Bowl captivating. The manner by which he interwove politics, culture, pain, misery, knowledge, ignorance, optimism, pessimism, the human spirit, the lack of humanity, etc. was outstanding. Yet making the reader feel emotionally and viscerally connected to the history is one of the more difficult things the historical writer can accomplish and Egan succeeded brilliantly. In my opinion, this is a must read for anyone who reads. Period.

Cautionary tale about the dangers of trifling with nature

Customer Rating:

Timothy Egan has written a first-class book about the Great American Dust Bowl. The story documents how government and business--even with the best of intentions--can facilitate the destruction of an entire region. Using actual stories of hearty survivors who persevered dust storms, drought and depression, Egan accurately recounts historical events with flair and drama. He makes history come alive by managing a rare accomplishment; educating while entertaining the reader.

The Worst Hard Time	Customer Rating:
Excellant. I heard about the "Dust Bowl" but never imagined what it really was and how terrible of time in our history. This book really opened my eyes. Hearing the stories from people that survived that time makes me fully appreciate how we have it today.

Non-fiction that Reads Like a Novel

Customer Rating:

What was the worst environmental disaster of the 20th century? Would you believe the over-farming of the southern Great Plains that led to the enormous dust storms of the 1930s? The biggest of these storms on April 14, 1935, which went down in history as "Black Sunday," completely blocked out the sun and contained more tons of dust and dirt than was removed to dig the Panama Canal. All of it airborne - clogging lungs, blinding cattle, burying homesteads, and turning the Great Plains into a lunar crater. Through diary accounts, personal interviews, and newspaper stories, Egan paints a vivid and personal picture of the people and places most affected by this ecological disaster. The book is fascinating - and penetrating. It's hard to imagine why so many people of Oklahoma, Texas, Colorado, Kansas, and Nebraska remained behind on what became a blistering hot patch of dirt. But they did. Egan's account is one of the best written historical novels, I've ever read. It's fast, it's detailed, and it packs an emotional kick. It's like stepping into a time capsule. The one weakness of the book, however, is Egan's failure to really put the disaster into the context of today. It would have been interesting if he spent more time on exploring how the disaster shaped the lives of people living on the Great Plains now. But otherwise, "The Worst Hard Time" deserves your attention. Literate Blather your thing? Then scoot on over to Dark Party Review.

I had no clue	Customer Rating:
...since I was born in the late 60's yet here in 2008 I wanted to know about the folks that survived during that period of time, how they lived and why it had all happened. Timothy made this real and "touchable" for me. Your heart breaks for these people, it's a very moving tribute. I came away grateful for everything in my life.