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A review by ela_lee_
The Worst Hard Time: The Untold Story of Those Who Survived the Great American Dust Bowl by Timothy Egan
3.0
“100 million acres had lost most of its topsoil, nearly half had been essentially destroyed and could not be farmed again. Thinks about the size - an area stretching 500 miles north to south and 300 miles east to west was drifting and dusted. Two thirds of the total area of the Great Plains had been damaged by severe wind erosion...an environmental disaster bigger than anything in American history.”
3.5 stars rounded down to 3, mainly because I found the book pretty repetitive, a bit too long, and don’t feel like I learned much more information after the second half. However, I’m still glad to have read this book; I found it intensely interesting and descriptive of an area and time period that is often overlooked.
The Dust Bowl era has always intrigued me and I had no idea just how much the government was involved with colonizing and destroying this area (shocker.) The government literally lied and convinced people to move here to start a new, enriched life when the towns hadn't even broken ground yet. People were ordered to murder millions of buffalo and rabbits because they thought these animals were destroying/taking up their farm land, they pulled up tons of grasslands in order to force their agricultural habits on an area that doesn’t naturally grow their crops. The Dust Bowl was a completely man-made disaster caused by Americans choosing not to educate themselves and listen to environmental/agricultural experts of the time. We destroyed the land and soil and wouldn’t listen to nature: The answer was there in the land but we ignored it.
3.5 stars rounded down to 3, mainly because I found the book pretty repetitive, a bit too long, and don’t feel like I learned much more information after the second half. However, I’m still glad to have read this book; I found it intensely interesting and descriptive of an area and time period that is often overlooked.
The Dust Bowl era has always intrigued me and I had no idea just how much the government was involved with colonizing and destroying this area (shocker.) The government literally lied and convinced people to move here to start a new, enriched life when the towns hadn't even broken ground yet. People were ordered to murder millions of buffalo and rabbits because they thought these animals were destroying/taking up their farm land, they pulled up tons of grasslands in order to force their agricultural habits on an area that doesn’t naturally grow their crops. The Dust Bowl was a completely man-made disaster caused by Americans choosing not to educate themselves and listen to environmental/agricultural experts of the time. We destroyed the land and soil and wouldn’t listen to nature: The answer was there in the land but we ignored it.