The Worst Hard Time

The Untold Story of Those Who Survived the Great American Dust Bowl

Timothy Egan

• Publisher: Mariner Books Classics
• Year: 2006
• ISBN:
  9780547347776
• Topic: History
• Subtopic: North American History
• Index: History

In a tour de force of historical reportage, Timothy Egan's National Book Award–winning story rescues an iconic chapter of American history from the shadows.

The dust storms that terrorized the High Plains in the darkest years of the Depression were like nothing ever seen before or since. Following a dozen families and their communities through the rise and fall of the region, Timothy Egan tells of their desperate attempts to carry on through blinding black dust blizzards, crop failure, and the death of loved ones. Brilliantly capturing the terrifying drama of catastrophe, he does equal justice to the human characters who become his heroes, "the stoic, long-suffering men and women whose lives he opens up with urgency and respect" ( New York Times ). In an era that promises ever-greater natural disasters, The Worst Hard Time is "arguably the best nonfiction book yet" ( Austin Statesman Journal ) on the greatest environmental disaster ever to be visited upon our land and a powerful reminder about the dangers of trifling with nature.

This e-book includes a sample chapter of THE IMMORTAL IRISHMAN.

Index

A | B | C | D | E | F | G | H | I | J | K | L | M | N | O | P | Q | R | S | T | U | V | W | X | Y | Z

A

Acre, Tex, 170, 199, 200–4

African Americans. See Blacks

Agriculture. See Farming

Airplanes, 137, 139, 216–17, 277

Alcohol, 27–28, 50, 53, 61, 75, 79, 81–82, 92–93, 105, 108, 133, 150, 219

Alexander, Lon, 92

Alexander, T. R., 71

Alexander II, Czar, 65

Allred, James V., 229–30

Amarillo, Texas, 113, 303–8

Animals. See Cattle; Horses; Livestock; Rabbit drives; Wildlife

Automobiles: and driving in dust storms, 155–56, 195–97, 204–6, 208, 211–12, 214, 235; and gas prices, 230, 273; and leaving Dust Bowl, 230–31, 234; ownership of, 49, 75, 105, 106, 163, 171, 201–2, 206–7, 295; photographs of, 199, 213

B

Baca County, Colorado, 27–28, 80–82, 87, 101, 117, 208, 236–37, 256

Baker, Bill, 122, 124, 158, 284–85

Banks: failures of, 84, 91, 92, 95, 100, 101, 241, 286; foreclosures by, 79–80, 108, 166, 176, 300, 301; loans to farmers by, 48, 50, 295–96; and New Deal, 132; photograph of, 100; and stock market crash, 73–74

Barrick, Hi, 79–80, 107–8, 165–67, 169–70, 195

Becknell, William, 34

Beer. See Alcohol

Beightol, Roy, 201

Bennett, Hugh Hammond: death of, 311; education of, 126, 266; family background of, 125–26; and Great Plains Drought Area Committee, 266; and Operation Dust Bowl, 262–63, 272, 280, 283, 304; photograph of, 251; and Roosevelt, 134–35; soil conservation plans of, 134–35, 159, 161, 178, 187, 223–29, 265–66, 311; on soil erosion, 125–27, 133–34, 183, 261

Bibo, Solomon, 97

Birthrate, 169

Bison, 17, 18–19, 25, 148, 253, 309

Black Sunday (April 14, 1935), 8, 198–224, 227, 228, 242

Blacks, 85, 95, 109, 110, 176–77, 183, 227

Blizzards. See Snowfall and ...

Table of contents

• Title Page
• Contents
• Copyright
• Dedication
• Photo
• Epigraph
• Map
• Introduction: Live Through This
• PROMISE
• The Wanderer
• No Man’s Land
• Creating Dalhart
• High Plains Deutsch
• Last of the Great Plowup
• BETRAYAL
• First Wave
• A Darkening
• In a Dry Land
• New Leader, New Deal
• Big Blows
• BLOWUP
• Triage
• The Long Darkness
• The Struggle for Air
• Showdown in Dalhart
• Duster’s Eve
• Black Sunday
• A Call to Arms
• Goings
• Witnesses
• The Saddest Land
• Verdict
• Cornhusker II
• The Last Men
• Cornhusker III
• Rain
• Epilogue
• Notes and Sources
• Acknowledgments
• Index
• A Conversation with Timothy Egan
• Sample Chapter from THE IMMORTAL IRISHMAN
• Buy the Book
• About the Author
• Connect on Social Media