Causes Of The Worst Hard Time By Timothy Egan

The 1930’s consisted of severe drought and dust storms that prevailed across US plains, creating what is known today as the Dust bowl. This environmental disaster turned soil to dust that winds picked up and spread into dark clouds over the dry regions. Thus, creating suffer endearing conditions for families, their horses, and cattle. In The Worst Hard Time, Timothy Egan describes the affected areas and shares the tragic stories of settlers who lived through this time of suffering. Though this devastation is widely viewed as a horrible climatic event, it is important to understand the human ignorance largely responsible for causing the suffered disaster.

Several times throughout the book, Egan denotes the controversy over whether the disaster

Government policies and their lack of intervention are also responsible for the strike of disaster. A report sent to Roosevelt by the Great Plains Drought Area Committee about the causes of the dust storm disasters concluded that the public homesteading act was greatly at fault (267). The homesteading policy and the stimulation of war time demands “led to over cropping and over grazing, and encouragement of a system of agriculture which could not be both permanent and prosperous “ (Egan, 267). War time demand was sought to drive up prices that stimulated record production. But by 1930 prices plummeted and led farmers to plow even more land in attempt to break even. The Federal homestead policy encouraged farmers to do this by keeping land allotments low and requiring land to be plowed (268). During the time the wheat prices dropped dramatically, wages fell, but productivity of wheat continued to surge. Farmers fell into debt, unable to pay taxes, foreclosure occurred

The Social Security Act was created to “ensure that the pensionless elderly would not starve,” while the Works Progress Administration was set to “keep the government payroll rolling,” and the National Labor Relations Act to enshrine “union rights in the workplace” (Egan, 237). Underground ancient water of the Ogallala Aquifer was found and used to heal portions of the Great Plains whose crops remained thirsty (265). It’s important to recognize the human ignorance that is held largely responsible for the suffering that came about during the Dust Bowl. Recognizing and analyzing the causes of past occurrences throughout history can help to avoid future disasters. By studying events and actions that led to the Dust Bowl, Americans can understand the importance of government intervention and caring for land, pertaining to how it affects the economy, and overall status of all