The Worst Hard Time

In this work of non-fiction Timothy Egan expresses his wish for sounder government activity insurance to avoid natural disasters. Egans The Worst Hard Time is a harrowing tale round farmers who decided to stay on the plains stretching across Texas panhandle, Oklahoma, New Mexico, and Colorado during the major drought in the 1930s. The disaster, known as the Dust Bowl, is largely regarded as a human caused problem. Egan, who is a national alike on environmental issues for the New York Times, expertly incorporates diachronic facts from the time with real throwaways from those who stayed.Although Egan sees farming as the reckon cause of the drought, winds, and carcass, he portrays his characters as hardy entrepreneurs who were duped onto unsustainable farm-land. These individuals, who were known as Sod-busters, started moving into the field of study during the 1800s when federal government was selling land for next to nothing. They quickly tore up huge regions of recently settle d grass-land to found wheat. This quick change in topography caused high winds to blow off top soil that had been accumulating over millennia.High temperatures and dust storms ravaged the battleground killing animals and humans in its wake for most of the 30s. On April 14, 1935 the region sawing machine its worst dust storm which rained more than 300,000 tons of dirt and dust. This day became known as glowering Sunday because those who witnessed it said it blotted come to the fore the sun. The dry grass became fuel for praire fires that were sparked by lightning. Swarms of grasshoppers and rabbits plagued the region. In one invention Egan describes a story in which the bunnies are brutally beaten while theyre assailants are quiet down dressed in the Sunday best.The worst effect was the endless wind and dust. One young mother, hazelnut tree Shaw, lost her baby daughter and grandmother within hours of each other to dust pneumonia. Using ad hominem stories such as this, Egan t ries to point out that this disaster could turn out been pr correctted with more cautious government indemnity. Egan portrays his characters as innocent victims of railroad companies and the government. However, as the situation got worse no one told them that their promises where founded on speculation.Egan describes how Germans, who had been lured to Russia by Catherine the commodious to serve as a human buffer from the Turks, headed for the American plains when her promise of free land and no taxes was found to be false. One such man was George Ehrilich. He didnt flee the czars army, survive a hurricane at sea and live through homegrown hatred caused by the Great War meet to abandon 160 acres of Oklahoma that belonged to him and his 10 American-born children. In stories like this Egan portrays his characters as resilient and even stubborn. To survive they did what they had to do but did not give up on their dreams.Egan follows the stories of families that move into new lands in the region that rarely turned out worthwhile. In one story a family moves to an inhospitable country after grueling journey. Upon arrival their horses fell over dead and their owners were forced to drink the blood from a sows ear to stay alive. Egan expertly incorporates facts and vivid stories to gain sympathy for hard working Americans and reveal the spread-eagle cause of the Dust Bowl. Hopefully Egan can reach enough people that control government policy to prevent another catastrophe like the Dust Bowl.The worst hard timeWhat lessons, If any, have we intimate from the dust bowl catastrophe-? slightly how human actions, well-intentioned or not, can lead to environmental handicap? Is there anything comparable on the horizon today? 225). What lessons, If any, have we learned from the dust bowl catastrophe-?about how human actions, well-intentioned or not, can lead to environmental damage? Is there anything comparable on the horizon today? Drawing on more contemporary example s of environmental disasters or concerns, write a paper that explores how this debate continues to be timely or hat come tos a stand on this debate. . tally to the Houston Chronicle, The Worst Hard Time documents how government and business with the best of Intentions can facilitate the destruction of an stainless region. Explain how this Is true with regard to the Dust Bowl, and then extend your analysis to include the relevance of this contention to more recent events. What parallels to on-going events do you see? What are the implications for our society today? 3. Watch the 2012 nonsubjective film by Ken Burns called The Dust Bowl (PBS. Erg/sunburns/dustbins), and then write a unconditional analysis of the documentary film and Jeans book. Note any conflicting accounts of the dust bowl or the demo of events or any additions of details In one account that arent present in the other, and then contemplate on the significance of these differences. Do the accounts share the s ame purpose and audience? How do the messages vary? crumble how the different medium and genre-?a historical book vs.. A documentary film-?employ similar or differing strategies to appeal to the audience and carry out their message. 4.As noted at the end of the book, in the section on Notes and Sources, Egan conducted the investigate for the book using multiple methods and by compiling various types of data. Besides consulting public documents (like U. S. nose count reports), local anesthetic public library collections, local newspapers, and other historical societies and historical sources, Egan also did primary research by visiting the High Plains and interviewing people who lived through the Dust Bowl. What is the effect of weaving personal stories and stories of individuals and families Into his historical account?What is the effect on you, as a deader, and your understanding of this historical event? Carry out your own cast In which you 1) consult a secondary source on a l ocal historical event (environmental, political, or cultural) and then 2) interview an older relative or acquaintance or community member who has a recollection of the event. Write a report on the event, followed by a reflection on how your understanding of the event and presentation of the report were affected by these deferent types of evidence. 5.Conduct merely research on the political and social events coinciding with Jeans Dust Bowl portrayal ?such as the Stock Market Crash of 1 929, the Homestead Act, the Hoover administration policies, the election of FED, the New cumulus programs implemented by FED, etc. Then write an analysis of how an understanding of the larger cultural, historical, and economic setting can transfer our understanding of the Dust Bowl. As an alternative, you might research and write a project that examines the local context in Kansas, drawing on Kansas History resources (see the links at assassinations. Us/ dustbins. HTML).Or, explore, In particular, the political effects of the Dust Bowl. How multimedia project-?a website or video-?that integrates print, audio, video, and images to capture the multi-layered experiences of various families and regions portrayed in Jeans book, along with the multi-sensory experiences of the Dust Bowl. You might create a timeline or use maps, oral histories, photos, etc. To champion convey the experience via a multimedia format. Or you might focus on a signalise event or issue, such as Black Sunday, dust pneumonia, static electricity, soil 8 spirit u I t y G u I d e eating away and conservation, etc. ND organize your multimedia presentation around en of these topics in order to deepen and enrich understanding of these issues. 7. Write a response to the question How is this book relevant to 21st light speed readers? You might consider the most serious ecological or environmental issues that we currently face, and the responses and actions of individuals, communities, activists, and government s. Or, as a group collaborative project, define an ecological or environmental problem, and outline a proposal or solution that might address the problem. Present this as a multi-part paper or website. . During the Dust bowl, a umber of people left their homes-?a migration about which Steinbeck Grapes of Wrath is written. But most residents chose to stay. Write a response in which you evaluate why the residents stayed. Would it have been better to have left? Which choice would you have made? Use illustrations and examples from the book to support your analysis. 9. Create a class environmental blob in which you include discussion threads of historical accounts of environmental disasters-?such as the Dust Bowl-?along with accounts of current environmental events or concerns.With he purpose of creating collective action, include concrete steps that individuals and communities might take to address environmental concerns, and include links to relevant national and local organizations an d community groups. 10. Imagine that the sequences of daybook entries from Don Harebell in Nebraska (pages 244-48 274-78 294-302) were presented in the current day as a toddle or blob. Harebell, like many floggers, has chosen to leave the entries open to comments from readers. Write a comment in response to one of the sequences of diary entries. Harebells last entry name in the form of a numbers (page 302).Analyze the significance of that poem, or write a response to that in the form off blob entry. 11. Jeans historical account incorporates multiple disciplinary perspectives ranging across the sciences, the social sciences, and the humanities. While the environmental perspective is crucial to Jeans account of the Dust Bowl, he is also interested in effects on human psychology, family behavior, marriage, labor conditions, agriculture, the regimen industry, the liquor laws and trade, political systems, religious systems, economic systems, music, the arts, etc.Drawing on your own a cademic (or personal) interests or the subject area or field in which you are planning to major, look for appearances of this interest/area of interest in the book. What role does your disciplinary interest (or related interest) play in Jeans historical account? Or, if you dont see your area of interest or study represented in Cantors account, explain what role it might have contend had it been factored in. Links to further questions for discussion or short writing prompts.