The Worst Hard Time Essay - 1882 Words

One theory in Jared Diamond s Collapse is that soil degradation and erosion leads to insufficient agriculture and a society s demise. In Timothy Egan s The Worst Hard Time, he sets forth in specific and excruciating detail exactly what Diamond outlines in Collapse. Only Egan s book isn t theoretical. It isn t a survey of what s happened in other countries. It s about the Dust Bowl in the 1930s. It s about what happens, right here in the heart of America, when the land is misused, mistreated, and turns on those who depend on it. Centered in the panhandle of Oklahoma and extending south into the panhandle of Texas, north into half of Kansas and a quadrant of Colorado, the Dust Bowl despoiled 100 million acres. For thousands of years this†¦show more content†¦As long as the weave of grass was stitched to the land, the prairie would flourish in dry years and wet. The grass could look brown and dead, but beneath the surface, the roots held the soil in place; it was alive and dormant. The short grass, buffalo and blue grama, had evolved as the perfect fit for the sandy loam of the arid zone. It could hold moisture a foot or more below ground level even during summer droughts, when hot winds robbed the surface of all water-bearing life. In turn, the grass nurtured pin-tailed grouse, prairie chickens, cranes, jackrabbits, snakes, and other creatures that got their water from foraging on the native turf.Through the driest years, the web of life held. When a farmer tore out the sod and then walked away, leav ing the land naked, however, that barren patch posed a threat to neighbors. It could not revert to grass, because the roots were gone. It was empty, dead, and transient. By the fall of 1930, the first dust storm rolled out of Kansas, through Oklahoma, and into the panhandle ofTexas. . . . [I]t rolled, like a mobile hill of crud, and it was black. When it tumbled through, it carried static electricity, enough to short out a car. And it hurt, like a swipe of coarse-grained sandpaper on the face. Yet the 1931 harvest was the largest ever, more than 250 million bushels, with 33 million acres plowed up in the southern plains, and theShow MoreRelatedthe worst hard time1139 Words   |  5 Pageshorizon today? Drawing on more contemporary examples of environmental disasters or concerns, write a paper that explores how this debate continues to be timely or that takes a stand on this debate. 2. According to the Houston Chronicle, â€Å"The Worst Hard Time documents how government and business with the best of intentions can facilitate the destruction of an entire region.† Explain how this is true with regard to the Dust Bowl, and then extend your analysis to include the relevance of this statementRead MoreThe Worst Hard Times Essay1007 Words   |  5 PagesThe Worst Hard Times by Timothy Egan conveys the story of farmers who decided to prosper on the plains during the 1800s, in places such as Texas, Colorado, New Mexico, and Oklahoma. They decided to make living, and some stayed during the worst droughts in the United States in 1930s. High temperatures and dust storms destroyed the area, killing animals and humans. This competently book reveals the prosperity for many, later revealing the time of the skinny cows. The story is based on the testimoniesRead MoreThe Worst Hard Time By Timothy Egan1079 Words   |  5 PagesAccording to Egan, â€Å"Never let the kid s see you sweat† (2006, p.1). The Worst Hard Time by Timothy Egan was announced as â€Å"a classical disaster tale† by the New York Times. This book was written to inform everyone about the untold story of those who survived the American Dust Bowl. The story documents how the darkest years of the Great Depression affected the economy and the people’s living environment as well. Egan’s book explains the importance of the Great Depression. Within this theme, Egan exploresRead MoreThe Worst Hard Time On The Dust Bowl1909 Words   |  8 Pageswith the wind erosions for a decade or so, and the dust was tearing away the crops, putting dust and other particles in the air, making it thick and hard for people to see when traveling across the country. People were afraid that in the future they would not be able to survive in the High Plains and feel secure that it was a safe place. The Worst Hard Time focused on the Dust Bowl and how it affected people in the High Plains. Parched land was one of the main conditions that lead to despair being foundRead MoreExperience in a Community in Essay, The Worst Hard Time by Timothy Egan 692 Words   |  3 PagesIn the essay, The Worst Hard Time, author Timothy Egan conveys the experience of the community in the town of Dalhart, Texas as it falls from being a town that enjoyed fortune from high demands of product in the market to a town of unrest and helplessness just a while after the market crash of 1929. Egan describes the economic and social conditions in the Texas Panhandle as a whole and in other areas, as well as what it meant for the people of this community in the midst of the Great Depression.Read MoreSemester A Unit 3 Lesson 31626 Words   |  7 Pagesreading and what is it about? Think about what you have read so far in The Worst Hard Time: The Untold Story of Those Who Survived the Great American Dust Bowl. The entire text has a central idea, so does each section and chapter, as well as ea ch paragraph. Not only does a nonfiction text have a central idea, so does each section, chapter and paragraph. Let’s look at some example paragraphs from your book, The Worst Hard Time: The Untold Story of Those Who Survived the Great American Dust Bowl, andRead MoreSemester A Unit 3 Lesson 31626 Words   |  7 Pagesreading and what is it about? Think about what you have read so far in The Worst Hard Time: The Untold Story of Those Who Survived the Great American Dust Bowl. The entire text has a central idea, so does each section and chapter, as well as each paragraph. Not only does a nonfiction text have a central idea, so does each section, chapter and paragraph. Let’s look at some example paragraphs from your book, The Worst Hard Time: The Untold Story of Those Who Survived the Great American Dust Bowl, andRead MoreQuestions On Processor Demand Criterion1265 Words   |  6 Pages1990 (Lui Sha et al., 2004). In general, the processor demand in an interval [t1, t2] is the amount of processing time g (t1, t2) requested by those jobs activated in [t1, t2] that must be completed in [t1, t2] (Lui Sha et al., 2004). Hence, the feasibility of a task set is guaranteed if and only if in any interval of time the total processor demand does not exceed the available time, that is, if and only if (Lui Sha et al., 2004) Aperiodic task scheduling: The higher schedulabilityRead MoreThe Types Of Stereotypes789 Words   |  4 Pagesis never included in these labels, however true they may be.Given all this hate and judgement, people are better off keeping their worst traits to be dealt with by themselves and the people they are closestto, rather than proclaiming it to the public. The general public commonly will not help out one with such a big problem as their worst trait. Instead it is likely that they will go along shaming them just like the rest of the people around. Close friends and family would be the bestRead MoreGenerations: Baby Boomers1292 Words   |  6 Pageswe have the omniscient Baby Boomers (1946-1964), impious Generation X (1965-1979), and the judged Millennials (1980-2000: the youngest generation). With them, a futile attempt to convince non-believers that the Millennials are not, and far from the worst generation to exist. Just like the upper classman, the older generations say Millennials are â€Å"The dumbest generation†; â€Å"the intellectual future of the United States looks dim.† (Drutman). Criticizing Millennials use of the internet as a way to regurgitate