The beginning of the book was a much easier read than the end, only because most of the information was given in the beginning and the end seemed to reiterate what had already been said. The book was hard to finish because it seemed to be saying the same thing every page towards the end. Worster’s arguments were solid and made a lot of sense comparing culture to the economy and the New Deal. Linking the Dust Bowl with the Great Depression made this more entertaining. His thesis, that the Dust Bowl was a consequence due to the inherit conflict between capitalist expansionism and the ecological sensitivity was a valid and accurate statement that he explained thoroughly through out the entire text sufficiently.
The dust bowl was considered the “Worst hard time” in american history. The Dust Bowl was a big cloud of dust that took place during the 1930’s in the middle of the Great Depression. The dust bowl was located in the southern great plains as it affected states like Kansas, Texas, New Mexico, and Colorado. The three main causes of the Dust Bowl were drought (Doc E), amount of land being harvest (Doc D), and the death shortgrass prairie (Doc C).
The Dust Bowl was a terrible experience during a horrible time. In the 1930s post World War I America had a total collapse of the stock market causing the Great Depression affecting the economy on a global scale, but hitting hardest at home in the United States. However, the economy wasn’t the only thing that was hit hard during this time; seemingly unstoppable dust storms ravaged farming land from the west to east coast hitting hardest in the great plains in the middle section the the US became known as the Dust Bowl. The Dust Bowl was not entirely a causation of bad luck on nature, it was caused by an increasing demand for crops, advancements in farming technology, while the final nail in the coffin was a lack of rain. During World War
In The Worst Hard Time (Houghton Mifflin, 2006), Timothy Egan tells the stories of the people who survived the Dust Bowl. Dust storms swept across Americas High Plains during The Depression and many fled but Egan tells the stories of those who stayed and survived. Egan believes that the time that dust storms were happening was the literal “worst hard time”. Egan also believes that the dust storms played a large role in The Great Depression and that it was like nothing ever seen before. Egan shows how the dust storms were a great human and ecological disaster.
The Dust Bowl was like no other, for it impacted the entire nation, allowing many to learn of the consequences from careless usage of land. With the conclusion of the Dust Bowl, the New Deal also ended, leaving America both relieved and shocked by the eight year dust storms. In 1941, the nation was welcomed with 33.25 inches of rain, more than any amount in the twentieth century. Nonetheless, those in the vast plains were still worried, dreading each passing year. Many who lived during the Dust Bowl era could recall specifically the “wild wind and blistering heat” and the meager amounts of money left (Henderson et al. 115).
The book “The Worst Hard Time” by Timothy Egan gives an in-depth perspective on the survivors of the Dust Bowl. Timothy Egan is a journalist and has authored other historical novels, including “The Big Burn: Teddy Roosevelt and the Fire That Saved America.” Egan wanted to show what the Dust Bowl was like for the people that lived in the Great Plains when it occurred. I chose this book because I have always been interested in the Great Depression and the events around and during it. “The Worst Hard Time” is a slightly biased, thorough retelling of the lives of people living through the Dust Bowl.
Timothy Egan called the Dust Bowl "the worst hard times As the nation was hit with its worst economic disaster, the country was hit with its worst ecological disaster as well. Over 300 dust storms or dusters hit the Southern Great Plains during the 1930s. The hardest hit areas were theOklahoma and Texas panhandles. The land became almost uninhabitable, and over two million people left their homes throughout the course of the dust bowl in search of a new life elsewhere. Many ended up nearly starved to death and homeless.
This over farming diminished the nutrients in the ground and removed all of the grass and sod holding the dirt in place which resulted in it creating the giant dust storms. Storms like this have happened in the past but not to the same degree. He mentions how the climate in the Southern Plains is problematic as there is little rain and every so many years there are big storms that tear throughout the area. The difference between the storms that occurred before the Dust Bowl, is that there was grass and sod keeping the soil in place instead of just bare earth with shallow roots for anything that managed to cover the earth. Worster claims capitalism and the farming practices are responsible for this as the farmers strive to make a profit without caring about the state of the land is in.
During the Dust Bowl some people made the decision to stay at their farms. Huge drifts of dirt piled up on homesteaders’ doors, came in the cracks of windows and came down from the ceilings. Barnyards and pastures were buried in dirt. After about 850 million tons of topsoil was blown away in 1935 alone. The government responded to this by saying “Unless something is done, the western plains will be as arid as the Arabian desert.”
The Dust Bowl: Between 1930 to 1940, in the southwestern region of the United States, as wheat had become in more and more high demand, Farmers began producing wheat at a much higher rate. Slowly more farmers were plowing fields which made the land basically bare because of all the dry fields. At the same time, some stronger winds were beginning to occur and a drought had come in the region. The fast winds kicked up all the dry dirt from the fields and sent it through the air creating clouds of dust soaring through the air. Nineteen states were affected by this dustbowl.
Dust Bowl and Economics of the 1930s The Dust Bowl was a very desperate and troublesome time for America. The southwestern territories were in turmoil due to the arid effect of the drought causing no fertile soils. As the rest of America was being dragged along with the stock market crash and higher prices of wheat and crops since the producing areas couldn't produce. This was a streak of bad luck for the Americans as they were in a deep despair for a quite some time.
The Dust Bowl was a devastating environmental disaster that occurred during the Great Depression. Severe drought coupled with poor agricultural practices in the Great Plains resulted in massive dust storms that darkened skies and destroyed crops and homes. This disaster had a significant impact on the quality of life for people living in the affected areas. The dust storms caused not only problems to the surroundings but to the people as well, as many suffered respiratory and eye problems making it difficult to breathe or see. This coupled with the fact there was no healthcare due to the market crash it was very difficult for people to get the help they needed.
The story starts off by telling you to imagine what it’d be like to live in the 1930’s when the Dust Bowl had taken effect. When dust storms came everyone in the area had to prepare quickly to withstand them. The wind combined with the dust and gravelly dirt was very strong and loud, easily getting into houses and cutting off fresh oxygen. Dust storms of the 1930’s were supposedly one of the worst natural disasters. They had affected everyone and everything in the area, so many Migrated West.
The dust bowl is very serious. “But in the summer of 1931, the rains disappeared. Crops withered and died. There had always been strong winds and dust on the Plains, but now over plowing created conditions for disaster. There was dust everywhere, because the people couldve worried about others than themselves.
“With the gales came the dust. Sometimes it was so thick that it completely hid the sun. Visibility ranged from nothing to fifty feet, the former when the eyes were filled with dirt which could not be avoided, even with goggles ”( Richardson 59). The Dust Bowl was a huge dust storm in the 1930s that stretched from western Kansas to New Mexico. People that lived in that area could not step outside or they would get dust in their lungs.
