“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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The story was a tragic event in our history. I had never heard of or read about this before. It was an informative expose about the immigrant struggle in an unforgiving land.
Count this amongst the best of people’s history – The Devil in the White City, Unbroken, The Boys in the Boat – readable and engaging. This book tells the haunting story of the force of nature. From a sunny and unseasonably warm morning that sent the titular children off to school dressed for spring and not for winter to the deadly and powerful …
True but sad story
Well written telling of a little-known tragedy — unless you’re from Nebraska where there is a mosaic depiction of the blizzard in the state capitol.
I learned a lot about the people who settled the upper mid-west — where they were from and how they came to live in the US. It was a tragic story. Made me appreciate more our current weather service and our many ways for communication. Also, it was so common for children to die. So sad for the mothers.
After seeing a monument along a country road near Geneva Nebraska a few years ago dedicated to some victims of the great blizzard, I’ve always been curious to learn more. This book was very informative and written in an easy style to understand, yet didn’t lack in emotional appeal as individual cases were featured throughout the whole storm …
The stories about the people were interesting. Went into too much about the meteorology.
I think there were more personal stories that are not in this book.
True story about pioneer children and others caught in one of the worst blizzards in history.
This book went into quite a bit of detail about the weather service in the 1800’s. The story about the children was shocking, sad, as well as, informative. Worth reading.
I like historical stories of long ago happenings. This one is interesting if you can get past the beginning where there was too much scientific information about why the storm happened. I wanted to read more about the people and not a dissertation on weather patterns that make up a blizzard.
A piece of history i had no idea of. Some people complained of the weather gathering information, I found it fascinating. Changing of the true facts for the news for the higher ups turns out not to be all that new. I highly recommend this book.