The Worst Hard Time by Timothy Egan

I don't know much about the High Plains Dust Bowl of the 1930s, so I'm interested in reading Timothy Egan's The Worst Hard Time: The Untold Story of Those Who Survived the Great American Dust Bowl, a National Book Award winner in 2006 (also in 2006 it won the Washington State Book Award and the Oklahoma Book Award) - click here to read Elizabeth Royte's December 2005 review titled "The Anti-Joads."

Timothy Egan is a reporter for the New York Times and I seem to gravitate towards books written by the Times staff.

The Table of Contents looks promising...

Introduction: Live Through This 1

I • PROMISE: The Great Plowup, 1901–1930
1. The Wanderer 13
2. No Man’s Land 32
3. Creating Dalhart 52
4. High Plains Deutsch 59
5. Last of the Great Plowup 73

II • BETRAYAL, 1931–1933
6. First Wave 91
7. A Darkening 103
8. In a Dry Land 115
9. New Leader, New Deal 128
10. Big Blows 136

III • BLOWUP, 1934–1939
11. Triage 145
12. The Long Darkness 155
13. The Struggle for Air 171
14. Showdown in Dalhart 176
15. Duster’s Eve 193
16. Black Sunday 198
17. A Call to Arms 222
18. Goings 236
19. Witnesses 242
20. The Saddest Land 254
21. Verdict 265
22. Cornhusker II 273
23. The Last Men 279
24. Cornhusker III 293
25. Rain 303

Epilogue 309
Notes and Sources 315
Acknowledgments 328
Index 331

Click here to read an excerpt of the first chapter.