A review by sarah_dietrich
The Worst Hard Time: The Untold Story of Those Who Survived the Great American Dust Bowl by Timothy Egan

3.0

The Worst Hard Time is a historical account of a number of different people living in the American dust bowl during the 1930's. It also catalogues the political response to the drought and how this affected the people. At first glance the title sounds like hyperbole, but its not. The people who stayed in the dustbowl through the 30's surely lived through the worst hard time of their lives. However, I don't think that Egan's writing did justice to the plight of these people - I found that the various stories blended together, because Egan didn't give a unique voice to each individual. Having said that, I thought that the epilogue did a great job of pulling the stories together while highlighting the different experience of each person. I would recommend The Worst Hard Time to anyone who is interested in a historical account of the dustbowl.