The Worst Hard Time: The Untold Story of Those Who Survived the Great American Dust Bowl

During the worst of the Depression, the High Plains were terrorised by dust storms unlike anything that had ever been witnessed before or since. Timothy Egan's well praised narrative brilliantly documents American history by bringing this legendary episode out of obscurity. Egan chronicles the frantic efforts of twelve families and their towns to persevere despite devastating black dust storms, agricultural failure, and the loss of loved ones, as they follow the ups and downs of the area. The human individuals who become Egan's heroes—"the stoic, long suffering men and women whose lives he opens up with urgency and respect"—are equally well-represented by his masterful depiction of the frightening drama of calamity (New York Times).

The Worst Hard Time is "arguably the best nonfiction book yet" (Austin Statesman Journal) about the largest environmental calamity to ever hit our land and a potent warning about the perils of playing around with nature in an age when ever-greater natural disasters are predicted.