Book Nook Cafe discussion

June 2009 BNC Book selection

The Worst Hard Time by Timothy Egan

Description

The dust storms that terrorized the High Plains in the darkest years of the Depression were like nothing ever seen before or since.

Timothy Egan’s critically acclaimed account rescues this iconic chapter of American history from the shadows in a tour de force of historical reportage. Following a dozen families and their communities through the rise and fall of the region, Egan tells of their desperate attempts to carry on through blinding black dust blizzards, crop failure, and the death of loved ones. Brilliantly capturing the terrifying drama of catastrophe, Egan does equal justice to the human characters who become his heroes, “the stoic, long-suffering men and women whose lives he opens up with urgency and respect” (New York Times).

In an era that promises ever-greater natural disasters, The Worst Hard Time is “arguably the best nonfiction book yet” (Austin Statesman Journal) on the greatest environmental disaster ever to be visited upon our land and a powerful cautionary tale about the dangers of trifling with nature.


About the Author

TIMOTHY EGAN is a national enterprise reporter for the New York Times. He is the author of five books and the recipient of several awards, including the Pulitzer Prize. He lives in Seattle, Washington.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/prod...

I just started The Worst Hard Time, and am caught up in it already. I'm looking forward to what the rest of you think. In the meantime I'm posting a 1938 postcard I found in the photos section, since it relates to this book.

Coincidently, the dust storms are mentioned in the book I am currently reading, Lighting The Way. It's in the chapter that profiles Dolores Huerta. She was a cofounder of the United Farm Workers along with Cesar Chavez.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dolores_...

The section on the storms note that by 1934 the winds had carried away as much as 100 million acres of fertile topsoil.

I started the book today too. Hope others will join in!

I forgot to request it at the library. But I just looked it up and it seems that there are a few copies of it available. So I will definitely try to get it before the weekend.

I am somewhat determined to finish World Without End before I start the next thing. Only about 200 pages to go. A Light at the end of the tunnel. Or in this case at the top of the church tower.

Barbara

I got my copy from the library, but I want to finish Lighting the Way first. I have around 100 pages to go.

I intend to read the Egan book, too. Presently i'm in the midst of The Reserve but it's going quickly, so i anticipate starting Worst Hard Time tomorrow.

deborah

My copy came in Saturday. Just as soon as I finish Fatally Flaky


I'll get started on that.

Donna In Southern Maryland

In the preface the author notes, "...a storm in May 1934 carried the windblown shards of the Great Plains over much of the nation. In Chicago, twelve million tons of dust fell. New York, Washington - even ships at sea, three hundred miles of the Atlantic coast - were blanketed in brown."

I recall on AOL we discussed the fact, contrary to popular belief, that the dust bowl affected even states as far away from the Plains as NY. However, I cannot for the life of me recall what book we were all discussing when this came up.

Do you recall what other book we read together as a group that discussed the Dust Bowl? TIA

Alias asked: "Do you recall what other book we read together as a group that discussed the Dust Bowl?"

Well, just to suggest the most obvious: was it The Grapes of Wrath?


Jan O'Cat

When I used to teach The Grapes of Wrath I showed a PBS program from the American Experience series that covered much of the same ground as the Egan book. I'll need to look it up to remember the title.

Perhaps the book title you were trying to remember was the prose poem that won a Newberry, Karen Hesse's Out of the Dust?

Out Of The Dust

I liked Hesse's book very much. Many images in poem were so graphic that i almost feel they were my own memory. An example was the dust around a place setting at the dinner table. Imagining that they were eating food on the plate amazed me.

Alias, i remember discussing the dust bowl and am wondering if it wasn't with the nonfiction group, Odyssey? I didn't read with this group, so i don't think that was what engendered the discussion i am remembering.

Note: it will a bit longer before i can read the book. We are having new flooring installed http://www.wilsonartflooring.com/prod..., so had to empty the room. Naturally i put the book in the farthest corner with piles of furniture between it & me. Who says i don't plan ahead? ;-)

deborah

deborah: Alias, i remember discussing the dust bowl and am wondering if it wasn't with the nonfiction group, Odyssey? I didn't read with this group, so i don't think that was what engendered the discussion i am remembering.
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I don't recall if I read Grapes with this group or not. I know I've read it twice. But it is not the book I am thinking of. It seems it wasn't that long ago.

It also wasn't a book of prose poems.

Perhaps it was on the Odyssey group. Maybe because Jan is from OK, my memory has me discussing it with her. It could be a faulty memory.

The book I read recently Brain Rules notes our brain frequently does this on it's own in an attempt to make sense of gaps. A thing to note when hearing court testimony. It's interesting that many disparage circumstantial evidence ( "a collection of facts that, when considered together, can be used to infer a conclusion about something unknown")and think eyewitness testimony is superior. Yet studies show eyewitness testimony can be riddled with error. If you watch Court TV they will always note that criminal experts often think circumstantial evidence is superior.

ANYway, enough of my tangents. With my faulty memory, we were probably just talking about dusting our homes. I have to peruse my jnl again.

Alias Reader wrote: "The book I read recently Brain Rules notes our brain frequently does this on it's own in an attempt to make sense of gaps."

Some brains do this faster than others. DH & i can be watching the same program, get the same clues but he sometimes can't seem to "fill in the gap", as in figuring out why they knew something was true. He sees it when i explain but he didn't make sense of the gap.

Alias Reader wrote: ANYway, enough of my tangents. With my faulty memory, we were probably just talking about dusting our homes. I have to peruse my jnl again."

LOL. Seriously, we were discussing the dust bowl and it's tickling my brain that it was in relation to something you, Alias, read about the '30s or Roosevelt. I just can't recall much more. So put that duster away! ;-)

deborah

In Brain Rules the author notes there is an actual blind spot in our vision. The brain quickly goes through possible choices and quickly selects one. It is so rapid you never see the blind spot that would be in the center of your vision. The author noted there is a disease where things go a bit haywire with the process and people see miniature people and things that don't make sense. They mention a chariot running across the floor or little people running. It's harmless. I don't recall what the disease is called.

The book was quite interesting.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blind_sp...

I was easily able to find my post on GR for this book. Here is what the author said about blind spots and the disease.

My post from May 2009
Brain Rules explores the brain and how we might get the most out of it. There are so many fascinating facts. For example, I read tonight that right now you are hallucinating. You are perceiving parts of this post that do not exist. The author explains that "there is a region in the eye where retinal neurons, carrying visual information, gather together to begin their journey into deep brain tissue. That gathering place is called the optic disk...there are no cells that can perceive sight in the optic disk. It is blind in that region-and so are you. It is called the blind spot. Do you ever see two black holes in your field of view that won't go away? That's what you should see. But your brain plays a trick on you. As the signals are sent to your visual cortex, the brain detects the presence of the holes and then does an extraordinary thing. It examines the visual information 360 degrees and around the spot and calculates what is most likely to be there. Then, like a paint program on a computer, it fills in the spot... It does this based on prior experience with events in your past. It gatherers up numerous assumptions, than offers them up for your perusal." ...It does this all in a blink of an eye."

In some people this goes haywire and they see things that aren't there. It's called Charles Bonnet Syndrome. The people who have it know that the things they are seeing are not really there.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Bon...

I am 3/4 of the way done with the book, and I would give it two thumbs up.

Brain Rules 12 Principles for Surviving and Thriving at Work, Home, and School

Oh, yes. I remember you telling us (here or at Odyssey) about Charles Bonnet Syndrome. Fascinating.

deborah

PBS has an American Experience special on the Dust Bowl with lots of good background information available online here:

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/dustbowl/

I got the book from the library and have been reading it this week. I am really enjoying it so far. Can't wait for the discussion to begin.

Becky

Wildcats, there is no fomal discussion format. We all just jump on in and post. There is also no need to wait until you finish the book. Just put chapter and page # at top of your posts.

I don't think with a non fiction book like this there are spoilers. However, if you do think something is a spoiler, please put "spoiler warning" at the top of your post.

So post away !

Thanks! I am on page 146 so I am moving right along. I can't see how we would need any spoilers as the whole book is just about the dust bowl and the sad situations. I find it really interesting as my mom was born in Liberal, KS in 1938 and I remember my grandma talking about how horrible the dust was everywhere. I grew up in Western Kansas and have lived in Southern Oklahoma so I have a real feel for what they are talking about. I now live in Nebraska so I have spent most of my life in the midwest. I will post later when everyone gets a chance to get started and catch up.

Becky

I hope nobody is offended that I made up some discussion questions forThe Worst Hard Time. I stole some, adapted some, made up some. Feel free to use for inspiration -- or to ignore. Sometimes I can't help myself.

1. Do you see any parallels between the Dust Bowl and Hurricane Katrina (or other recent natural disasters)?

2. Is there any relevance in learning about the Dust Bowl for our time?

3. Did you find anything surprising about the facts introduced in this book?

4. Do you have any family stories that either corroborate or contradict what Egan asserts in the book?

5. Has this book increased your interest about this time period?

6. Does Egan present information in a way that is interesting and insightful, and if so, how does he achieve this?

7. (Possible spoilers in this one)
In The Worst Hard Time, Egan follows a diverse cast of individuals and families, weaving together the eyewitness accounts of survivors including:
• Ike Osteen, who survives the Dirty Thirties in a home made of dirt and plank boards, with his widowed mother and eight brothers and sisters;
• Bam White and his family, Native Americans who live through the worst of the storms on the edge of town, in the shadows;
• John McCarty, a businessman, known as the Dust Bowl Cheerleader, who founds the Last Man Club, an association of people who vow never to flee;
• The Doc, a big-hearted, once wealthy man, who ends up a pauper after opening up a soup kitchen;
• The Herzsteins, a pioneering Jewish family, who try to maintain the rituals of daily life even after they lose a beloved uncle to a gunslinger;
• Hazel Lucas Shaw, who comes to the plains as a teenage bride only to see her baby girl killed by the dust.

Which of these stories spoke to you most powerfully? Did reading about these people change your opinion of the Dust Bowl or the people who survived it?

8. What do you think Timothy Egan meant when he called the Dust Bowl “the great untold story of the Greatest Generation”?

9. What do you think you will remember longest after reading this book? What facts or stories made the greatest impressions on you? Do you think the book deserves the accolades it has received?

10. After finishing The Worst Hard Time, what questions linger in your mind?

Thanks for taking the time to list questions, Sherry.
They look like good ones.

I just started the book, about 35 pages, so I can't answer them yet.

Becky said: " I grew up in Western Kansas and have lived in Southern Oklahoma so I have a real feel for what they are talking about. I now live in Nebraska so I have spent most of my life in the midwest."

Becky, I live now, and have always lived, in Oklahoma. I live in the central part of the state now and grew up in Tulsa. My family, who have lived in Tulsa since before statehood, don't have any particular memories of the Dust Bowl, probably because they lived in a more verdant part of the state and didn't make their living from agriculture. Stories I remember hearing from that era are "just" Depression stories.

I thought it was interesting that Egan pointed out that the Joads, surely the most powerful and well-known symbol of the Dust Bowl, were from Sallisaw, which is about as far east as you can get in the state. Egan makes the point that Steinbeck was writing about lender, landowner, and agricultural abuses of power, but for some reason that's become intermixed with the Dust Bowl. I wonder if that's because of images from the movie The Grapes of Wrath?

In reading the story of Bam White I'm reminded of the racism that Native Americans faced even in this regioon where they are a large percentage of the population who are mostly well-assimilated into the larger culture.

Although I'm not old enough to remember the Dust Bowl, I do remember hearing racist remarks about Native Americans all of my life. That's largely NOT true now, but I'd be hard-pressed to realize when it changed. It has been within my lifetime, but must have been a gradual change. I'd pretty much forgotten those generally accepted attitudes of Native American racism until I began reading Bam's story.

Jan O'Cat

Jan
I thought it was interesting that Egan pointed out that the Joads, surely the most powerful and well-known symbol of the Dust Bowl, were from Sallisaw, which is about as far east as you can get in the state. Egan makes the point that Steinbeck was writing about lender, landowner, and agricultural abuses of power, but for some reason that's become intermixed with the Dust Bowl. I wonder if that's because of images from the movie The Grapes of Wrath?
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It was also noted that Grapes was a story of people who left. This book is about people who stayed.

Jan:
In reading the story of Bam White I'm reminded of the racism that Native Americans faced even in this regioon where they are a large percentage of the population who are mostly well-assimilated into the larger culture.
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I was able to pick up from my library a book of Edward Sheriff Curtis (1868-1952) photographs.

[image error]

I wasn't familiar with his work until he was mentioned on GR.

http://www.amazon.com/Edward-Sheriff-...

Amazon Product Description
Edward Sheriff Curtis (1868-1952) is best known for his outstanding documentary record of the North American Indian tribes from the first decades of the twentieth century. His portrayal of their ceremonies and daily work, his mesmerizing close-up portraits, and his powerful landscapes of the American West were intended to serve as an anthropological resource on a ''vanishing race''. Curtis's project was published in The North American Indian, a series of luxurious volumes funded by financier J.P. Morgan and President Theodore Roosevelt. These remain among the most collectible and sought-after photobooks in the history of the medium. The American Indian cultures have not disappeared altogether as Curtis feared, but his project's success lies in its powerful record of faces and places that mark a bygone era in American history. His photographs, which portray over 80 separate tribes, are marked by dramatic lighting, sensitivity, and beauty. This introductory monograph includes a range of portraits, landscapes, and pictures from around the American West alongside examples of Curtis s studio portraiture, which was more typical of the Pictorialist photography of his time. This is the perfect book for students and enthusiasts of early twentieth-century photography, history, anthropology, and Native American culture.

About the Author
Joanna Cohan Scherer is an anthropologist and researcher for the Handbook of North American Indians at the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, DC. She has written numerous articles on images of Native Americans.

I think the Curtis photos are great works but i have quarrels with them, as well, including accuracy. Thanks to his efforts (& the work of others) we came to see Native Americans in a different light, so i am also grateful for his work. I'd rather have them than not but i also have an aftertaste of an unpleasant nature about them.

deborah

Deborah, while I understand your comments about Curtis, my general thoughts are that the personalities of artists are not as important as the work that lives on after them. There are a whole lot of authors, visual artists, musicians, photographers, architects and so on whose personal lives are/were less than saintly, but in the end (at least for me) what matters most is what they created and how it enriches those who experience it. Just my opinion, of course.

I just finished chapter 3 which ends with the Hoover quote, "Americans are nearer to the final triumph over poverty than ever before in the history of the land."

The photos and the comments on p 37 that a family of 7 lived in 308 sq foot dugout is hard to get my modern mind wrapped around. Not only is it tiny, but they have no electricity, no running water, no plumbing, and nothing as far as the eye can see. They also were often dirt poor. How they managed I don't know. Compare their existence to our current way of life and out notion of our "needs" versus our "wants."

I have to admit that I am still not in love with the layout of the book. The liberties taken with quotes and lack of footnotes I find quite annoying and it takes me right out of the story. He has direct quotes from people in 1900. I can't recall what I had for breakfast last Tuesday.

I'm not familiar with Curtis's personal life. I am going to refrain from Googling him until I can study the photo's in the book.

Deborah said: "I think the Curtis photos are great works but i have quarrels with them, as well, including accuracy. Thanks to his efforts (& the work of others) we came to see Native Americans in a different light, so i am also grateful for his work. I'd rather have them than not but i also have an aftertaste of an unpleasant nature about them."

Deborah, I agree. I did a huge paper about Curtis when I was in college. He made a valuable record of turn-of-the-20th-century Native Americans but many of the photos, especially the studio-type portraits, are unsatisfactory because they are so very posed and the subjects often seem over-clothed in "Native" finery. Some of the faces and attitudes are magnificent, but they often seem to me to be striving to make the Natives strange, exotic, or quaint. Viewing much of Curtis' work provokes an odd mix of emotions.

I don't know anything about his personal life, my feelings are just a reaction to his work. Certainly the tale of a man who took all of his photographic equipment around Western America in the worst of circumstances makes an interesting story.

By the way, when I was posting last night I strove mightily to avoid saying "Natives" which is generally what we call Native Americans around here. It may not sound politically correct, but it's what many Natives call themselves. Also, lots of Native Americans now prefer to be called Indians. I think it's because NA is such a mouthful and also because they're trying for a lack of pretension and perhaps a return to earlier terminology.

We get some Native American media around here, notably some public radio programs aimed at that population. So from that I know that Native Americans in Canada are called Original People. I find that evocative and poetic.

Jan O'Cat

Alias, I agree with your comment about the dugouts. I just keep wondering how they survived. I have seen many sod houses in Kansas museums and they were not much of a step-up either.

He talks so much about the tumbleweeds. I remember living in Kansas in the 70's and we'd look out the back door and the tumbleweeds would be all bunched up against the back of our house and we lived in town! They still drive my father crazy as he resorts to having to burn them. I can't imagine grinding them up and eating them! It would be worse than eating hay. It is amazing the things they thought up just to survive.

Becky

My grandmother lived for a time in the desert area east of the Cascades, and on my recent trip to Washington state I made a point to visit the area. The winds were ferocious. Sand blew and scrubbed my face, drifted on the road like snow. And everywhere, everywhere there were tumbleweeds, piled along fence lines, rolling across roads and open spaces. These are the images I have in my head while read TWHT. I was interested in where these plants came from.

JanOMalleycat wrote: "We get some Native American media around here, notably some public radio programs aimed at that population. So from that I know that Native Americans in Canada are called Original People. I find that evocative and poetic."

It is poetic, i agree. When the Museum of the American Indian opened with that name in D.C., i decided it must now be okay to use the term Indians, even though it still doesn't seem right to me. The fact that the tribes were part of the planning & naming was important to me, too, in that decision. Truthfully, i tend to still say American Indian more often than not.

Sherry, i agree with you that one's feelings about another person's art shouldn't be about his/her personal life. It is a challenge sometimes but not as much in this case as in, for an example, Hemingway. In the case of Curtis my feelings about the photos are a bit about personal experience.

When we lived in the Dakotas (77-85) it was made clear to us that most tribal members who were wearing their pow-wow clothes didn't want their photos taken. If asked, they usually said no. However, if you asked again or talked to them awhile first, they said yes, even though when later asked we found out the need to be polite became more important than their fear of what taking a photo might mean.

Because Curtis shot where economical hard times had already devastated people, his offer to take photos for pay naturally won out. It's my understanding that they were aware of the fradulent nature of the way they were asked to pose but were willing to do it for him (not always for pay). Again, i'm glad, even if there are inaccuracies. And i feel those photos are one of the main reasons most Americans changed their opinions of Native Americans.

deborah

I appreciate everyone's comments about their experience with nature. Becky, we lived in Guymon, OK, for two years in the late '80s. I loved seeing the tumbleweeds roll along the fields and roads. In fact, one of my best memories of that is on a return trip from your mother's birthplace, Liberal, Kansas. We were driving along & a storm was coming. The tumbleweeds were fast & furious, almost resembling fleeing animals. When i heard people ate them during the Depression, i was amazed, as there doesn't look as though there is anything to eat.

At last i can get to my copy of the book but haven't started it yet. I still like reading the comments. My own families lived in Oklahoma & Texas during the Dust Bowl but didn't shared about it. (This would be my grandparents, as my dad was an infant & my mom born in the '30s.) In fact, i didn't know that my grandfather was born (1909) in a dugout sod house by the edge of a creek in Oklahoma until he'd been dead several years.

Ok, i promise not to post any more until i've at least read the dedication. :-)

deborah

Ok, i promise not to post any more until i've at least read the dedication. :-)
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Deb, you will like epigraph. it's from Willa Cather.

Sherry said: "And everywhere, everywhere there were tumbleweeds, piled along fence lines, rolling across roads and open spaces. "

Sherry, I had no idea that there were tumbleweeds that far north. I thought they were strictly a Southwest phenomenon and had a fairly limited range. We don't have them here in central Oklahoma, only 200-300 miles east of the territory Egan writes about.

I too was interested to read where they came from. I'd never thought about an origin of tumbleweeds as they just seem part of the landscape.

Jan O'Cat

I think I'm on page 48 or 50. I was interested in the story of the guy who was so large they had to make his overalls special at the factory. He got a note in his pocket from a seamstress; and ending up building a house and bringing her out to marry. A very odd start for a marriage.....

Donna In Southern Maryland

Speaking of tumbleweeds, I forgot to mention that apparently about 6 years ago they became very popular with decorators in the city. I read about a family that got rich by boxing them up and selling the tumbleweeds to them. I couldn't believe I didn't think of that!:)

I thought the story of the large guy was very interesting also. Kind of like modern day online dating, I guess.

Becky

Donna in Southern Maryland wrote: "I think I'm on page 48 or 50. I was interested in the story of the guy who was so large they had to make his overalls special at the factory. He got a note in his pocket from a seamstress; and endi..."

I thought this was charming and creative on the part of the girl. : )

The idea of hearing centipedes in the walls bothers me. Whoa.......just had a shiver go up my back just thinking about it. I'm sure I would not have had the pioneer spirit to be able to put up with that.

Becky said: "I read about a family that got rich by boxing them up and selling the tumbleweeds"

I've always heard that they're full of tiny bugs!

Jan O'Cat

I have a question about page 72. It's the last page of chapter 4.

The author writes: "Gustav's story was similar: he dodged a draft notice from the czar and sailed to America, but he was held at Ellis Island, quarantined after a glaucoma outbreak."

A glaucoma outbreak? I never heard of catching glaucoma.

Alias quoted: "The author writes: "Gustav's story was similar: he dodged a draft notice from the czar and sailed to America, but he was held at Ellis Island, quarantined after a glaucoma outbreak." "

Perhaps he was quarantined not to prevent spread of glaucoma but because he needed treatment? I don't know what treatment would have been available at the time.

Other than that I can only think that Egan meant to say something other than glaucoma. I didn't catch this as I read it.

Jan O'Cat

I know that people were quarantined at Ellis Island and they would check for eye disease but of course it couldn't have been glaucoma. And if my the use of my brain returns perhaps I can remember what the heck eye disease he means. Right now all I can think of is pink eye, but somehow that isn't doing it for me.

Barbara

Bobbie57 wrote: "I know that people were quarantined at Ellis Island and they would check for eye disease but of course it couldn't have been glaucoma. And if my the use of my brain returns perhaps I can remember w...

It was bugging me that I couldn't think of the name of the eye disease so I googled it. Trachoma was the infectious eye disease they were looking for in the immigrants. It was easily spread and caused blindness.

Thanks Kate. I was too tired to follow up last night.
I thought that people were refused entry not that they were quarantined if they had this eye disease. It was definitely a fear that people had that they wouldn't be allowed to enter after that horrific trip.

Barbara

Kate said: "Trachoma was the infectious eye disease they were looking for in the immigrants. It was easily spread and caused blindness. "

Thanks, Kate and Barbara. Both of your contributions sound more like what I'd heard before of Ellis Island. Barbara, I remember the stories of people refused entry.

Come to think of it, it doesn't say Gustav HAD the eye disease, only that he was quarantined because of an outbreak. Perhaps that's why he wasn't refused entry.

Alias, I looked on p. 72 last night and found that the glaucoma line has been edited out of my edition (which is the most recent trade paperback). It says only that Gustav was quarantined, nothing about glaucoma.

I wonder if the mistake was Egan's or the person he interviewed. In this case it sounds like that was Gustav himself who might still have a significant accent that made the difference between glaucoma and trachoma indistinguishable.

Jan O'Cat

Throughout my school life when learning Oklahoma history or the history of the plains, we were taught about the war between the sodbusters and the ranchers (read: animal herders). A lot of stories of sodbusters building fences and herders tearing them down.

I realize now that this has always been told from the point of view of the sodbusters. After all, aren't all modern people sodbusters in their way, erecting not just fences but streets and malls that interfere with the free range of grazing animals? The point being that free range across the prairies after a certain point was as dead a lifestyle as trailing buffalo herds.

So it's interesting to me to read about the Lujan family (roughly p. 124 and beyond), sheep ranchers for generations before the sodbusters arrived and destroyed the prairies.

Jan O'Cat

If you would like to see a good public television conversation with Tim Egan about The Worst Hard Time, go to YouTube and type "Tim Eegan" in the search box. The one I'm listening to comes in three parts, so you don't have to spend a long time unless you want to.

Jan:
Alias, I looked on p. 72 last night and found that the glaucoma line has been edited out of my edition (which is the most recent trade paperback). It says only that Gustav was quarantined, nothing about glaucoma.
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Kate said: "Trachoma was the infectious eye disease they were looking for in the immigrants. It was easily spread and caused blindness. "
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I never catch errors in books. But this was a whopper.
Maybe it was trachoma, but by the time of the PB they didn't want to go back and find out, so just omitted it.