Timothy Egan’s Worst Hard Time is a history book that reads like a novel and chronicles the daily life of the survivors of the dust bowl. Other histories of this time record those who fled from this great disaster but this book records the lives of those who stayed. Timothy Egan is primarily a journalist and writes with a very contemporary and quick style. He reports from his own interviews – the life stories of the survivors. Egan weaves throughout the book personal stories, interviews, historical facts and scientific findings from this time. Throughout the book Egan looks back to the cause of the dust bowl, severe human abuse of the earth and traces the human cost. Egan keeps the reader’s attention with every chapter…I’ve never read a history so exciting.
