The Worst Hard Time: The Untold Story of Those Who Survived the Great American Dust Bowl

This book touches on the many factors that led to the dust bowl. The first-hand accounts are fascinating, and you'll get some good midwest history along the way.

A great read that will have you imagining what it would possibly be like to find yourself attempting to live & survive through that very oppresive moment in American history.

A very informative story about a major environmental disaster - a disaster whose prime causes were human. A disrespect of natural ecosystems and environmental limits, best summarized by the common phrase "rain follows the plow", combined with greed, speculation leading to a wheat price bubble, and a drought within normal climate variation turned a sublime grassland that once supported bison and Comanches alike into an American desert. Science, in the personification of John Wesley Powell, had warned against such unsustainable agriculture, but like climate science today, was ignored by development boosters and politicians alike. While the perseverance and hard work of the farmers profiled are admirable and hard to comprehend to modern minds, the denial of environmental facts seem all too familiar today. The New Deal responses of Roosevelt and Bennett were well-intentioned and partly successful, but in retrospect the use of tree shelter belts and agricultural subsidies were mistakes that morphed into sometimes counterproductive and problematic government programs.