Book Review: The Worst Hard Time by Timothy Egan - Page 4

As government is wont to do, it created a study committee. The report of the federal Great Plains Drought Area Committee was issued in August 1938. Climate change, it said, was not the reason for the dust storms and condition of the land. Instead, it laid the blame squarely with man. The committee concluded: "The Federal homestead policy, which kept land allotments low and required that a portion of each should be plowed, is now seen to have caused immeasurable harm. The Homestead Act of 1862, limiting an individual holding to 160 acres, was on the western plains almost an obligatory act of poverty." As Egan notes, to call the Homestead Act "almost an obligatory act of poverty" is "the most damning indictment."

But what man destroyed, he also worked to try to recover. The Roosevelt Administration sought to fight the ecological disaster while also helping fight the economic disaster of the Depression. Various entities were created, such as the Civilian Conservation Corps and Soil Conservation districts, to not only provide jobs but to try to restore the land through better land management principles, such as contour farming. Roosevelt himself had a pet idea that came to fruition: the planting of shelterbelts, groupings of trees planted to serve as windbreaks and help prevent soil erosion. At least in the Northern Plains, shelterbelts are almost ubiquitous today. These actions — together with nature's incomparable prairie grasses — have made the plains what they are today.

There were also other far-reaching policy decisions. The collapse of the farm economy led to farm subsidies, even the concept of paying farmers to not put land into production. The federal government even began buying land back. As such, the Dust Bowl years produced both natural and political effects that remain his real focus is on people, what they confronted and how they attempted to survive. That is the strength of the story - and the strength of the plains.

Article Author: Tim Gebhart

Tim Gebhart lives in Sioux Falls, SD, where he practices law in order to provide shelter for his family, his dogs, and his books. He is a member of the National Book Critics Circle and his blog de guerre is A Progressive on the Prairie.

Visit Tim Gebhart's author page — Tim Gebhart's Blog