If I mention the American Dust Bowl to you (if you are American) you probably have some basic information that you learned in school. A few photos flash through your mind of families looking poverty-stricken and depressed. You think of dust storms and droughts and bleak landscapes. As with much of history, however, our common knowledge tends to be simply the tip of the iceberg. The Worst Hard Time by Timothy Egan was enlightening, depressing, and absolutely fascinating. The dust storms that took over the Great Plains in the same years as the Great Depression were unlike anything seen before. People had flooded into the Plains and wheat became a…