The dust storms that terrorized America's High Plains in the darkest years of the Depression were like nothing ever seen before or since, and the stories of the people that held on have never been fully told. Pulitzer Prizewinning New York Times journalist and author Timothy Egan follows a half-dozen families and their communities through the rise and fall of the region, going from sod huts to new framed houses to basements with the windows sealed by damp sheets in a futile effort to keep the dust out. He follows their desperate attempts to carry on through blinding black blizzards, crop failure, and the death of loved ones. Drawing on the voices of those who stayed and survivedthose who, now in their eighties and nineties, will soon carry their memories to the graveEgan tells a story of endurance and heroism against the backdrop of the Great Depression. Egan captures the very voice of the times its grit, pathos, and abiding heroismas only great history can. Combining the human drama of Isaac's Storm with the sweep of The American People in the Great Depression, The Worst Hard Time is a lasting and important work of American history.

蒂莫西· 伊根，毕业于华盛顿大学，曾在《泰晤士报》担任全国新闻记者，游历西方，因参与系列报道《美国的种族生活》而与一组记者分享了2001年的普利策新闻奖。目前，他为《纽约时报》撰写在线评论专栏，著有多部非虚构作品。2006年因《肮脏的三十年代：沙尘暴中的美国人》一书荣获当年的美国国家图书奖非虚构作品奖。