Book Review: The Worst Hard Time

[Jeff Lebowski]

Q: What is the worst environmental disaster in US history?

I have been asking that question to quite a few people in the last couple of days. Most people answer "The Exxon-Valdez spill" or "Three Mile Island". But the correct answer is "The Dust Bowl". Nothing else comes remotely close.

The story of the Dust Bowl is superbly told in the recent award-winning book The Worst Hard Time by Timothy Egan:

http://www.amazon.com/Worst-Hard-Tim...6093846&sr=8-1

This book won the National Book Award for 2006, non-fiction category. The writing is outstanding with a perfect mixture of historical facts and personal accounts. A page-turner.

I knew a little about the Dust Bowl, but didn't realize that it was primarily human-induced. The high plains region was once a great grassland with millions of buffalo. After systematically exterminating the buffalo, cattle ranching was attempted, but it failed miserably due to harsh conditions (extreme temp. fluctuations and intermittent drought). The US government then aggressively promoted homesteading and dry-farming. Two things then happened to set up a perfect scenario for disaster during the 1920's: 1) the entire decade was unusually wet, and 2) there was a grain embargo on Russia that sent wheat prices sky-high. As a result, farmers plowed up the native grasses, planted wheat, and made fortunes. Many farmers were earning $6K-20K per year, with some earning as much as $75K per year; astronomical income for that period. Some were warning of impending disaster since the region was prone to periods of drought. However, a common belief at the time was that the act of plowing the ground altered the climate and caused more rain to fall, and the wet decade seemed to bolster that theory.

Around 1930, disaster struck: the depression hit and wheat prices fell from $2 per bushel down to $0.10 per bushel, and the area was hit with a severe drought. Millions of acres were either not planted at all, or they were planted but the crops died due to lack of moisture. The banks began to fail and most people lost all savings earned during the glory years. The drought kept getting worse and worse and it ended up continuing for eight long years.

The suffering during the dust bowl was extraordinary. As the land dried up, there was no natural root system left to hold down the soil. The winds (which are common to the area) eroded the soil and caused hundreds of massive dust storms. The storms were so severe that many people and animals would suffocate or go blind. The storms caused static electricity that would short out cars and even electrocute humans and animals. Or kill vegetation. For the first year or two, people would live off of gardens, but eventually it was impossible to even grow vegetables. People were reduced to eating tumble weeds and yucca roots.

I couldn't help but thinking of McCarthy's The Road as I read this book. This was as close to that kind of apocalypse as I can imagine. Major swaths of the region were completely devoid of vegetation: not a blade of grass or green leaf for miles. And the dust storms would blot out the sun. Thousands of people died from outright suffocation or dust pneumonia. Some dust storms were so extreme that people could not even stand up due to the falling dirt or see their hands in front of their faces. Many people went insane and lots of babies and children were simply abandoned.

The storms blew away most of the topsoil that took tens out thousands of years to develop. Yet, the people kept hoping that good times would return. Seven years into the drought, they finally got some good spring rains and some crops took hold. But millions of grasshoppers moved in and ate everything in sight. The grasshoppers' natural predators (birds, snakes, etc.) were all gone so there was nothing to keep the population in check.

Anyway, I could go on and on but I need to get to work. If you like well-written history, you should check this out. Highly recommended.

[UtahDan]

This is a wonderful review, I think I will buy it!