“David Laskin deploys historical fact of the finest grain to tell the story of a monstrous blizzard that caught the settlers of the Great Plains utterly by surprise. Using the storm as a lens, Laskin captures the brutal, heartbreaking folly of this chapter in America’s history, and along the way delves into the freakish physics of extreme cold. This is a book best read with a fire roaring in the … the hearth and a blanket and box of tissues near at hand.” — Erik Larson, author of The Devil in the White City
Thousands of impoverished Northern European immigrants were promised that the prairie offered “land, freedom, and hope.” The disastrous blizzard of 1888 revealed that their free homestead was not a paradise but a hard, unforgiving place governed by natural forces they neither understood nor controlled, and America’s heartland would never be the same.
This P.S. edition features an extra 16 pages of insights into the book, including author interviews, recommended reading, and more.
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When you think your life is tough, sometimes reading true stories of unimaginable hardship help put things in perspective. The Children’s Blizzard introduces you to life on the Plains in the late 1800s & the people who found themselves living there. This is not a feel-good story but makes you truly thankful you’re living in modern times.
I would have rated this 5 stars, but the author went on and on in some instances unnecessarily. It’s a sad, tragic story. He goes into all sorts of details about the weather (interesting), how people freeze to death (interesting, but too much information), and all of the stories of the people who died (didn’t need the details of so many tragic …
chikdren froze to death on their way home from school. Men froze to death trying to care for horses yards from their homes. Thousands of cattle froze to death drifting in one of the worst winter storms to hit the US in the 19th century. This well documented book tells the story of this terrible storm in both scientific terms–explaining why the …
January 12, 1888 in the Dakota Territory started out unseasonably balmy and the settlers all felt it was the beginning of a January thaw. Little did they know that later in the day the temperature would nosedive and they would be in the middle of a blizzard. A lot of the children dressed lightly for school and did not wear their coats so they …
Having spent several winters in South Dakota and Wyoming, I could appreciate David Laskin’s descriptions of the cold front that caused this tragedy. He”s definitely a very talented writer.
I thought the details about meteorology were a little confusing, but not enough as to detract from the story. This book was 100% compelling, from the beginning to the end. I especially liked how some of the people who looked like there was no way they could survive, managed to live despite terrifying odds, giving the story a happy ending of …
Heartbreaking event that through its telling, you not only get to know the victims, but because of the scientific descriptions of the effect of the elements of nature , you gain some knowledge of what was experienced. I used this book in a medical science class, later loaned it out to a friend and never saw it again. I was glad to see it offered …
Very well written history of a horrific time. At times hard to read, simply because of the situation the children found themselves in. We forget what it would be like without our instant news and weather. Just how fast the weather changed and they had no warning. I read this several years ago when it first came out, but the story has stayed …
The strength, fortitude, resilience and willingness to work in these early immigrants battling hardship and poverty is awe inspiring.
A very tragic story of loss. I cried over how many children and adults froze to death in the blizzard. Very informative information within the pages of how the body shuts down when you are freezing to death..I learned a lot about the human body just reading this book. I highly recommend this book..you can tell the author did a lot of research to …
The story of the blizzard of 1888 that ripped through the Dakotas, Minnesota, Nebraska, and Kansas is one that will tear your heart out. So many children died in the snow trying to find their way home when a polar vortex descended bringing with it feet of snow and making it impossible to see more than a few inches in front of their frozen faces. …
Recommended to me by a friend, I now tell everyone about it! It’s an interesting case in Midwest American history, an odd and fantastic phenomenon that led to many people trapped and dying in the frigid, monstrous blizzard. The story is filled with biology, meteorology, and the history of the settling of the Midwest by European immigrants as well …
Such a tragic story but living in Nebr all my life and the crazy weather we have ,made this was such an interesting story.
This was an interesting read. It was more than just an extreme blizzard. This book brought together the people, the weather, and the history as one.
This was a fascinating story and a compelling read. I became emotionally vested in the “characters” in the families described in the book and their fate. I had read about the blizzard of 1888 that hit in March, but I didn’t know any of the details about this tragic blizzard months before. Well researched and well written.
The descriptions of the blizzard and it’s victims were very good All the information about the weather forecasters was a bit boring . I found myself skipping over much of that information
Stayed interesting throughout.
This is a horrific, true story. Be prepared to have your heart broken. And, I learned about the causes and consequences of weather. More than I ever thought I would need to know. I lived in the Midwest for 40 years, but never experienced anything like this. Thank goodness!
Due to loss of life, this is a sad tale but, very informative about the early days of weather predicting. We never think about the technology involved in predicting weather and how much we rely on it for many reasons, particularly saftey. I thoroughly enjoyed this book for the historical aspects. Recommend!
Once again, history reflects the present. But this book has many aspects to it from the birth of weather forecasting, the lives of the people impacted by the storm both before and after, and the lasting effects of the event. If you like historic events in books like those written by Eric Larsen, you’ll love this book.