The Worst Hard Time

We've all likely heard about the Dust Bowl, and if you haven't, it's the weather phenomenon that hit the Great Plains in the 1930s, and gave Steinbeck something to write about in "The Grapes of Wrath."
The dust storms hit the plains with a vengeance, causing dust pneumonia and other horrible ills that killed many and left others with a respect for the land and soil conservation strategies brought in by experts such as Hugh Bennett.
Writer Timothy Egan's accomplishment, "The Worst Hard Time," is one of the best books describing the experience of the Dust Bowl. The dust storms hit parts of New Mexico, the Texas and Oklahoma panhandles, parts of Colorado and Kansas; and even parts of Nebraska that apparently never have recovered.