Required Reading - The Worst Hard Time

[matt819]

I'm as guilty as the next guy when I find a book that is riveting to call it required reading. I was tempted to post just that comment on the "In Cold Blood" thread, having just finished listening to the recorded book version. So I'm going to fall into that trap and call this book required reading - The Worst Hard Time.

It's a history of the dustbowl era of the Depression. While there is no question that a years-long drought contributed mightily to the utterly stark conditions in the dustbown region of western Kansas, the Oklahoma panhandle and parts of western Texas and eastern Colorado, the history of Anglo displacement of the native tribes and settlement of the west was, from my reading, the primary factor. In less than a generation, due to a mix of greed, hope, fraud, bad planning, racism, appalling agricultural techniques (even for the time), what was a lush grassland was converted into, well, dust. There were a few voices of reason in the late 1920s, but they were branded as nuts (the way we are branded today as the loony left).

Of course, the stories of those settlers who suffered as a result of, yes, their own actions and the severe drought are compelling. And, as I tend to do when I read such things, I can't help but marvel that it was less than 100 years ago. It was part and parcel of my parents' generation (though as dedicated urbanites even then I don't think they suffered much from the dust storms, except those that periodically dumped tons of dust on cities from Chicago to New York.

In any case, it is worth reading, and should be, yes, required reading.

[scholarsOrAcademics]

1. quaint restraint recommendation re. Dust Bowl

In any case, it is worth reading, and should be, yes, required reading.
I do not have the self-restraint to resist noting a few facts given in the book.(Timothy Egan, 2006)
pp20. "In 1882, a company out of Chicago organized the Capital Syndicate, and this group of investors took title to threee million acres in return for agreeing to build the capital. ...The syndicate drew some big British investors into the deal, among them the Earl of Aberdeen and several members of Parliament. By then, the Great Plains cattle market was the talk of many a Tory cocktail hour. Books such as "How to get rich on the Plains" explained how any investor could double his money in five years."
> then there is the introduction of a new species of people. In addition to the Chosen People, we now have the Tomorrow People, the nestors.
>Roosevelt's dream was to have a canopy of trees from North Dakota to northern Texas. for a windbreak and shade. Fourty million trees for a length of 3600 miles of trees were planted.
> the importance of Soil Conservation Districts.
> microdust 63 microns or less. reminds me of "The Mysterious Life of Dust"

[jeanarrett]

2. I bought this book a while back.

Heartbreaking. What those people endured and what a life! Highly recommended. It will make your problems look small.